BG Reads | News You Need to Know (March 10, 2021)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW // BG Podcast EP. 133: Music, Activism, and Politics with Riders Against the Storm
Today’s episode (133) features Austin-based hip-hop (and husband/wife) duo, Riders Against the Storm aka Chaka and Qi Dad.
You can listen to this episode and previous ones on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. Please like, link, comment and subscribe!
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
Austin Council Work Session (3.23.2021 @9AM)
Austin Council Voting Session (3.25.2021 @10AM)
[THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE]
LINK TO FILED HOUSE BILLS (3,848)
LINK TO FILED SENATE BILLS (1,481)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin area to remain in Stage 4, businesses must still require masks, local leaders say (Austin American-Statesman)
Despite Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's statewide mask mandate ending on Wednesday, the Austin area's top public health official said he wanted to hold off on relaxing pandemic rules because of an uptick in hospitalizations over the weekend.
Dr. Mark Escott, interim Austin-Travis County health authority, told members of the Austin City Council and the Travis County Commissioners Court on Tuesday that he recommended keeping the area in Stage 4 of Austin Public Health's risk-based guidelines until at least the end of the week.
Austin and Travis County businesses also must still require customers to wear masks as part of a local ordinance passed in July, according to local leaders Tuesday. Those rules are set to expire next month, but Austin and Travis County officials said they will stay in place until then.
Under the Austin and Travis County rules, residents can face a fine up to $2,000 if they knowingly violate the local orders. Each day that a violation occurs is a separate offense, according to the ordnance.
It's still unclear whether Abbott will challenge the local decision on masks. Past pandemic policies have been superseded by the governor's pandemic-related executive orders.
"The governor has obviously taken the position that his order trumps a mayor or a county judge's order in that regard," Adler said, adding that Abbott similarly challenged Austin and Travis County's decision to put a curfew in place for dine-in service during New Year's Day weekend to prevent a further surge in cases.
However, the Austin City Council last summer authorized Escott to create rules that protected Austin residents from the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. So, Austin and Travis County will no longer be enforcing the mayor or county judge's orders, but those set in place by Escott.
"The public health authority is responsible for the control of disease outbreak in Austin-Travis county and will continue to utilize the rules he has set forth in helping to further mitigate the risk of spread," Adler said. "The rules issued by Dr. Escott will serve to not only decrease the spread of disease but to also increase public confidence in the safety of local businesses.”
Last week, Escott and Austin Public Health Director Stephanie Hayden-Howard had told elected officials that the spread of the coronavirus locally was continuing to decrease, allowing them to consider moving Travis County from Stage 4 into Stage 3 of Austin Public Health's risk-based guidelines.
Under Stage 4, businesses are recommended to operate at up to 25 to 50% capacity. But under Stage 3, Austin Public Health would recommend that businesses expand operations to 50% to 75% capacity, but only if masking and social distancing are in place.
The agency's guidelines reflect a level of threat to those at risk of experiencing the most severe symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, ranging from the lowest threat at Stage 1 to the highest threat at Stage 5.
Austin Public Heath uses the average number of new hospital admissions for COVID-19 to determine the risk-based guidelines. As of Tuesday, the seven-day moving average of new hospitalizations was 29, up from 26 reported on Friday. The agency's online dashboard indicates that Stage 3 is when that number is between 10 and 29.
Projections by the University of Texas say the Austin area could be in a great position to enter Stage 2 by early April. However, Escott again Tuesday said he worries that data will be skewed by the end of the week if residents relax their mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing.
Escott said Abbott's decision, paired with an upcoming spring break, could have a big effect on local vaccine distribution if Travis County residents don't heed local orders… (LINK TO STORY)
New bills would make it much easier for Austin to get new code (The Austin Politics Newsletter)
Identical bills filed on Friday would make it much easier for City Council to adopt a new land development code.
The bill, which was filed in the House by Rep. John Cyrier, R-Lockhart, and in the Senate by Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, amends a provision of the local government code to draw a clear distinction between rezonings “that only affect an individual lot or a limited area of contiguous lots or land” and a “comprehensive revision of the regulations or boundaries.”
The bill specifies that site-specific zoning cases could be challenged via “valid petition,” in which either the owner of the property or (more commonly) the owners of 20% of the land with 200 feet protest the rezoning. In those cases, City Council needs a ¾ majority to adopt the rezoning.
However, comprehensive rewrites of the code or code amendments that apply uniformly across the city could not be challenged via valid petition.
The city of Austin and plenty of other legal experts have argued that this was always the case. However, a year ago Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer disagreed, telling City Council that as long as property owners were objecting to their properties being rezoned as part of a new LDC, Council needed a ¾ majority to approve it. That would mean nine out of 11. That essentially put the new code on hold, since at the time there were only seven members of Council in favor… (LINK TO STORY)
New PAC starts to fight strong-mayor plan (Austin Monitor)
It’s that time of year, Austin voters. The redbud trees have come out, signaling spring. Also coming out in time to remind us that we have choices to make in the May election are people paid to knock on our doors. So don’t be surprised when a block walker from Restore Leadership ATX knocks on your door to tell you that Proposition F “threatens the progress Austin made when we changed to the 10-1 district system which gave representation to all parts of Austin.”
The group sponsoring Restore Leadership ATX opposes Prop F, the citizen-sponsored initiative to change Austin’s current city manager-Council form of government to a strong-mayor system. The group that collected enough signatures to put Prop F and four others on the May 1 ballot will no doubt be campaigning any day now.
Ellen Wood is listed as campaign treasurer for Restore Leadership ATX and she also donated $10,000 to the PAC, according to the flyer the Austin Monitor received opposing Prop F. Wood, president and CEO of Virtual CFO, told the Monitor via email, “We think the consolidation of power in one person is regressive. It appears we are aligned with Austinites all across the city, including AFSCME, business leaders and members of the City Council, in opposition to Proposition F.”
Mike Levy, a civic activist and former publisher of Texas Monthly, contributed $25,000 to the PAC. He said he had heard that people “across the political spectrum say they’re against it because they’re afraid (Council Member) Greg Casar would be the first strong mayor.”
Asked to comment on that, Wood said, “Our PAC is very concerned about the idea of anyone becoming a strong mayor. It is hard to understand how diluting the voices of the 10-1 City Council and giving veto power to one person is ‘progressive.’ Words like that are being used deliberately in an effort to obscure the reality and avoid a discussion on the merits (or lack) of what this change would mean.”
Other major contributors to the PAC include Cumby Development, which donated $50,000; David Roche of Endeavor, who gave $20,000; and former publisher Chris Harte, who donated $10,000.
Bryan Cumby, the founder of Cumby Development, said late Tuesday, “I think it is one of the most important issues that has come before voters in a very long time. I’ve been in and out of the local political scene over the past 30 years or so and I don’t think this is a move that Austin should be making.”
Cumby added that adopting the strong-mayor form of government would negate the city’s recent move to the 10-1 system of representation. The city can have a strong mayor without overturning the current system, he said, pointing to former mayor (and former state senator) Kirk Watson as a good example… (LINK TO STORY)
Austin ranked No. 6 in US for major capital projects in 2020 (Austin Business Journal)
Austin now competes with the nation's biggest cities for corporate expansions, although it still has a fair amount of ground to make up on major business hubs such as Chicago and Dallas.
A March ranking by Site Selection magazine showed the Austin metro ranked sixth last year in the nation for total active capital projects with 84. That tied the Phoenix metro in Arizona. Ahead of Austin and Phoenix were Chicago (327), Dallas-Fort Worth (262), the Houston area (213), Atlanta (206) and Indianapolis (94).
But when it came to pound-for-pound rankings, the Austin metro came in second with 43.2 projects per capita last year. Only Indianapolis had more, with 47.7 projects per capita.
A year ago, Austin and Phoenix also tied for sixth place in the overall projects ranking, with 95 apiece.
A years-long wave of corporate expansions and relocations to Austin has affected all aspects of the commercial real estate market. Austin Business Journal published a cover story in January showcasing 43 towers under construction or proposed in or near the Central Business District. More towers have been announced since then.
Industrial leases and warehouse space also factored into the Site Selection ranking. Industrial vacancies in the Austin area were at 6.6% percent in January, according to NAI Partners, down from 8.4% in January 2020. Newmark said in a Q4 report that Austin’s industrial sector weathered the impacts of Covid-19. The same report found demand for Austin real estate, whether industrial or office, is being propelled by a large population surge and a growing workforce.
When combined with multiple reports showing record sales in the Austin-area housing market, as well as dangerously low inventory levels, it's clear that the region remains a white-hot destination for migration and job creation. They also raise questions about how long such a boom is sustainable.
Site Selection also recently highlighted the Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) factory under construction in eastern Travis County and BAE Systems Inc.’s $150 million Austin expansion as among the 25 largest capital projects in Texas. Samsung is also considering Central Texas as it scouts locations for a new $17 billion semiconductor plant.
Site Selection magazine calculates its rankings based on its proprietary Conway Data Projects Database, which qualifies projects that meet at least one of three criteria: a minimum $1 million capital expenditure; 20 or more jobs created; or 20,000 square feet or more of new space.
While most new office projects that hadn't already broken ground by March were delayed, industrial real estate across the country boomed, in part due to the acceleration of e-commerce caused by the pandemic. Chicagoland's top ranking by Site Selection was heavily influenced by industrial projects… (LINK TO STORY)
Delta Air Lines keeps Austin as a ‘focus city’ (Austin Business Journal)
A Delta Air Lines Inc. executive told an investor conference last week that Austin is now one of just two “focus cities,” a significant designation before the pandemic.
Delta President Glen Hauenstein told investors on March 1 at the Raymond James conference only Austin and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, will remain as its focus cities in a downsized airline, according to industry publication Airline Weekly. Nashville, Cincinnati and San Jose have lost the designation.
“Raleigh and Austin are both important because they’re not dominated by another network carrier, and they’re fast, fast growing metro areas with vibrant economies,” Brad DiFiore, a managing director at air service development advisers Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting, told Airline Weekly.
Other airlines have demonstrated they're also bullish on Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Last month, Allegiant Air announced nonstop flights that will take off this summer. Flights will be available to Bozeman, Montana — about 90 miles from Yellowstone National Park — and Bentonville, Arkansas, beginning in May and July, respectively. The airline's decision is in anticipation of increased demand for travel this summer, according to a Feb. 9 announcement that outlined 34 new nonstop flights nationwide.
In December, Hawaiian Airlines Inc. announced its first connection to Texas with service between Austin-Bergstrom and Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. The flights will begin to take off in April 2021… (LINK TO STORY)
UT-Austin report links “The Eyes of Texas” to minstrel shows but not Robert E. Lee, says song is “not overtly racist” (Texas Tribune)
A report released Tuesday by a University of Texas at Austin committee found that the controversial alma mater “The Eyes of Texas” debuted at a minstrel show where white students likely wore blackface.
The report said that William Prather, the university president who coined the phrase at the turn of the 20th century, said he took it from stories he heard and read about Confederate leaders who used a similar phrase to urge troops on during the Civil War. Read the report here.
But the 24-member committee could not find primary documents that specifically tied the phrase to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, despite it long being believed that Lee was part of the song’s origin story.
The committee concluded the intent of the song was “not overtly racist.”
“However, it is similarly clear that the cultural milieu that produced it was,” the report stated. “And the fact that the song was, for decades, sung and revered on a segregated campus has, understandably, blurred the lines between intent and historical and contemporary impact. This complicates its understanding and explains how different people experienced the song in vastly different ways.”
Members of the committee said in the report the song was intended to parody Prather, who often used the phrase, but also support his call to inspire the student body.
“There is not absolution nor is there vindication,” said professor Richard Reddick, who chaired the committee, in an interview with reporters on Tuesday. “This is a complicated story. You can't really parse out this is clean and clear. We do know and feel comfortable saying the intent was to parody Prather."… (LINK TO STORY)
TODAY Show’s Al Roker coming to Austin Friday, will help storm victims, interview Matthew McConaughey (KXAN)
TODAY Show weatherman Al Roker announced Tuesday on KXAN News Today that he’ll be in Austin on Friday to give a national audience a glimpse at how Texans are still dealing with February’s winter storms.
“As you know, a lot of folks are living in homes in desperate need of repair and remain in need of clean water,” Roker said. “We’re going to highlight their stories.”
Roker also mentioned that he’ll catch up with Austin actor and the University of Texas at Austin’s “minister of culture” Matthew McConaughey. His Just Keep Livin Foundation set up the Texas Relief Fund and McConaughey posts updates on his Instagram page for more information on how people can help the cause.
Roker also said he wants to cruise around town on a bike and get some barbecue, but mostly he wants to lend his support to people still in need.
“I’ll be helping people as well get some clean water,” he said.
In November, Roker said he had prostate cancer and would undergo treatment for it. He returned to the show three weeks after surgery… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas no longer has a statewide mask mandate. But face coverings are still required in some businesses and public places. (Texas Tribune)
Texas’ statewide mask mandate has ended as of March 10. Businesses are also now allowed to operate at full capacity as long as the hospitals in their region haven’t been treating a large share of patients for COVID-19. Gov. Greg Abbott announced he was loosening those restrictions so “businesses and families in Texas have the freedom to determine their own destiny.”
Health officials still emphasize the importance of wearing face masks to contain spread of the virus, alongside handwashing and social distancing. Several Democratic leaders called the executive order “dangerous,” including President Joe Biden, who said it was a “big mistake” to end the mask mandate. In addition, three of Abbott’s four coronavirus medical advisers say they were not directly consulted before he lifted the mandate.
Abbott said the state is in a “completely different position” than it was last year, with more access to testing, successful treatments, protective equipment and vaccines. However, Texas is still descending from a harsh winter surge that killed thousands and overwhelmed intensive care units across the state. Abbott’s decision to relax restrictions was announced as Texas averaged over 200 reported deaths a day and as Houston reported the presence of every COVID-19 variant, the Houston Chronicle reported… (LINK TO STORY)
Masks won’t be required at Texas Capitol — but lawmakers face stricter rules in their respective chambers (Texas Tribune)
Now that Gov. Greg Abbott's statewide mask mandate has ended, people visiting the Texas Capitol will no longer be required to wear face masks. But at least for now, more restrictive rules adopted by the House and Senate will remain in place — and leaders in the two chambers haven’t yet indicated publicly any plans to change those protocols.
In the Senate, lawmakers and staff must test negative for the coronavirus before entering the chamber or attending committee hearings. And masks are also required in the chamber unless a senator is seated alone at a desk.
And in the House, masks are also mandatory, unless a member is speaking from a microphone or protected by a barrier and socially distanced from others. Though testing is not required in the lower chamber, members are allowed to cast votes on legislation from outside the House floor.
Since the Capitol reopened to the public in January, the State Preservation Board that oversees Capitol grounds has required masks “at all times” while inside the building. But a spokesperson for the agency that Abbott chairs said that starting Wednesday, the board will instead “strongly encourage” visitors wear masks in public areas of the Capitol — and deferred to the two chambers for questions about their own operations.
“The House and Senate chambers are under the purview of the respective bodies, so we ask you contact them concerning their operations,” said Chris Currens, director of special projects at the agency, in an emailed statement.
Abbott announced he was lifting public mask requirements statewide last week. Under his order, people cannot be arrested or fined for not wearing a mask. But cities and counties can still require them inside their government buildings, and private businesses can require their customers and employees to wear them.
The House and Senate protocols were put in place at the start of the legislative session in January, when a statewide mask order was in effect. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whose office did not return a request for comment, said in January that pandemic-related protocols could be reviewed after the first 60 days of the legislative session — a mark the Legislature will hit Friday… (LINK TO STORY)
Six potential challengers to Gov. Greg Abbott in the 2022 Republican primary (San Antonio Express-News)
Texas is a year away from its March primary elections and there is already plenty of chatter that Gov. Greg Abbott could face his first challenge from the right after only token opposition in his past two campaigns. Here are some of the names that keep coming up: former State Sen. Don Huffines, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, Shelley Luther, Republican Party of Texas Chairman Allen West, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Land Commissioner George P. Bush.
Huffines, the Dallas native, has been a frequent critics of Abbott’s during the pandemic, calling him ‘King Abbott’ for his handling of the pandemic at one Austin rally in January and traveling to San Antonio on Saturday to speak at a rally commemorating the anniversary of the fall of the Alamo. Asked if he’s considering taking on Abbott, Huffines said: “Absolutely. I’m always keeping my options open.” Miller was elected in 2014 to Agriculture Commissioner, a post former Gov. Rick Perry held before becoming lieutenant governor, then governor. Miller inserted himself in the conversation when he was the only statewide elected official to attend a protest outside of the Governor’s Mansion in October calling on Abbott to reopen the Texas economy. “Quite frankly, governor, your cure is worse than the disease,” he said. The salon owner from Dallas become a national voice against COVID-19 restrictions after she went to jail for violating Abbott’s executive order that had required salons to close. Abbott withdrew the threat of jail time from future executive orders, but Luther has since become a vocal critic of his. On social media she’s been encouraging a primary against Abbott and has said his moves to reopen the state are “too little too late.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Bipartisan legislation filed to legalize casino gambling, sports betting in Texas (Dallas Morning News)
Two state lawmakers are backing bipartisan legislation that seeks to legalize casino gambling and sports betting in Texas. The bills by state Rep. John Kuempel, R-Seguin, and Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, would allow four casino resorts to be built in Austin, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston and San Antonio and would also legalize sports wagering. The state’s three federally-recognized Indian tribes would also be able to expand full-fledged gambling, including slot machines, on their land, a right the state has long denied them. The bills require a two-thirds vote of lawmakers because they seek to overturn the ban on most gaming enshrined in the Texas Constitution. If either bill passes the Legislature, Texas voters will then have the final say on whether to approve the gambling expansion.
“Now is the time to let voters decide on legalizing casino gaming across Texas,” Alvarado said in a statement. “Texas loses billions of dollars a year to our neighboring states that allow gaming and this measure would bring that revenue back to Texas, create tens of thousands of jobs and allow cut down on illegal gambling.”
The Las Vegas Sands, the gambling empire of late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, is behind the push to overturn the state’s ban on betting. Rob Goldstein, CEO of the Sands, told The Dallas Morning News that casinos would bring economic growth and tourism to Texas. “Our commitment is to develop transformational destination resorts that create tens of thousands of jobs and produce billions in revenue for the state while also providing robust economic benefits to the local host communities,” he said. The state’s GOP-dominated Legislature has long opposed expanding gaming, most of which is banned other than bingo, the Texas Lottery and some horse and greyhound track racing. But polls, including one released this week by The News and the University of Texas at Tyler, show a majority of respondents said they would legalize casino gambling if given the chance… (LINK TO STORY)