BG Reads | News You Need to Know (February 2, 2021)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
NEW // BG Podcast Ep. 126: Building a Texas Political Community with Pink Granite
OUT TOMORROW // BG Podcast Ep. 127: The Anatomy of a Digital Disinformation Campaign
CITY OF AUSTIN
Staff Moves: Kelan Robinson starts today as Chief of Staff to Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison (District 1). Robinson was most recently Director Of Government Affairs at the Downtown Austin Alliance.
THE 87TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE
LINK TO FILED HOUSE BILLS (1,657)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Austin City Council to consider rehousing initiative, restoring camping bans in four specific areas (KXAN)
City leaders may vote to ban some homeless camps in Austin through a new plan to rehouse people living in what they call “dangerous and unhealthy areas.”
Councilmember Ann Kitchen has proposed the Housing-focused Homeless Encampment Assistance Link, or HEAL for short. If approved, the measure would call on city staff to identify four specific locations where people experiencing homelessness are camping in areas they consider unsafe because of their proximity to roads, pedestrian traffic or other “hazards.” According to the proposal itself, the intent would be to immediately house those individuals in safe shelter. Then, the goal remains to create a path to permanent housing for them and eventually eliminate the need for “unsheltered camping.”
“The bottom line is we need safe places for people to stay where they have the ability to get connected to permanent housing and services,” she told KXAN last week.
The proposal describes the four “priority locations” as:
“South Central Austin, at a major intersection under a state highway overpass”
“East Austin, on a sidewalk or public easement adjacent to or leading to a public library”
“Along a major arterial through the Central Business District”
“In Northwest Austin, at an intersection adjacent to significant vehicular and pedestrian traffic”
The proposal asks city staff to address the needs of the people living in these areas within six months of the measure being approved — designated as Phase 1 of the initiative. It also dedicates dedicates at least $3 million for this phase, before possibly expanding to other locations.
“It says we are, right away, going to get busy connecting those people to housing and services,” Kitchen explained.
That includes longer term-solutions and permanent supportive housing or even temporary solutions, like a room in one of the city’s prolodges… (LINK TO STORY)
Should digital billboards be allowed across Austin? Supreme Court could decide (Austin Business Journal)
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — which has jurisdiction over Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi — decided (9-0) in August 2020 that prohibiting off-premise billboards from going digital is content-based and violates the First Amendment's protections on freedom of speech.
The city is appealing the decision to the United States Supreme Court under the argument that its ordinance is location-based, not based on the messaging. If that ruling is reversed, it would set a precedent in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The city's attorney, Renea Hicks, said he filed a petition to the court on Jan. 20. The Supreme Court's response is due by March 1.
Billy Reagan, Reagan Outdoor's general manager in Austin, said that under the current city ordinance, the company is left using traditional billboards, while others — including the city — currently use digital options on-premise. Take the digital billboard outside the Austin Convention Center, for example.
"We thought that that was pretty hypocritical, candidly, given the fact that the technology is basically becoming ubiquitous to everyone, yet they were going to restrict our ability to use it," Reagan said.
The Supreme Court only hears roughly 100 to 150 of the more than 7,000 cases it receives each year, or roughly 2%, according to the court's website. And the court previously heard a case in 2015 where it found in a 9-0 decision that an Arizona city's sign code that restricted temporary signs violated the First Amendment. The court found in Reed v. Town of Gilbert that the restrictions were content-based, which was deemed unconstitutional… (LINK TO STORY)
Kendra Scott steps aside as CEO of her Austin company, remains majority owner (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin jewelry entrepreneur Kendra Scott is stepping aside as CEO of her namesake company, but will continue in her role as executive chairwoman.
Scott will also remain as majority owner and will continue to lead Kendra Scott design, customer experience and philanthropy, the company said Monday.
The company said Kendra Scott executive Tom Nolan will assume the CEO position. Nolan has spent the past seven years in leadership roles at Kendra Scott, most recently as president.
Nolan has more than 20 year of management experience in retail and brands, including at Ralph Lauren, Conde Nast and as the founder and CEO of Prospect Brands… (LINK TO STORY)
Bevy of large development projects to shake up north Burnet Road corridor (Community Impact)
With a handful of development projects scheduled to open or break ground, the Burnet Road corridor in the area surrounding The Domain will look significantly different in 12 months than it does now.
Near the intersection of Burnet and Braker Lane, the new Austin FC stadium is almost complete. On Jan. 25, the Major League Soccer franchise named Austin-based tech company Q2 Holdings Inc. as the naming partner for its arena, now named Q2 Stadium.
Austin FC President Andy Loughnane in November said the 20,500-seat stadium is nearing 90% completion and is on track to be finished by early April. The stadium’s canopy was completed in the winter and only projects on interior spaces remain. The first events at the stadium will likely take place in June, Loughnane said.
Hours after the stadium naming rights were announced Jan. 25, the MLS sent out a release stating its 2021 season will begin April 3 with each club playing 34 matches. As of publishing time, the schedule for Austin FC’s matches had not been released.
Adjacent to Q2 Stadium, Capella Commercial will continue work on its 10-story Arena Tower project in 2021, according to the development group’s website. The development, which is unaffiliated with the MLS team, will deliver 450,000 square feet of Class A office space. The development’s original timeline stated it will open in late 2021 with a restaurant, bar and other amenities.The upcoming Domain Tower II will be the tallest tower in The Domain when it wraps construction in the fall of 2021. Stonelake Capital Partners’ newest development will ultimately stand at 24 stories with more than 330,000 square feet of office space available.
Further north up Burnet, construction on the Broadmoor development on the old IBM campus site is likely to begin in 2021. According to promotional materials from lead developers Brandywine Realty Trust, a 14-story office building located across from Top Golf on Burnet is scheduled to be delivered by 2022… (LINK TO STORY)
‘Save our community’: Neighbors protest against plan to house homeless people at northwest Austin hotel (KXAN)
Neighbors of a northwest Austin hotel touted as a potential location to house homeless people voiced their opposition to the plans on Sunday morning.
Dozens of people gathered for a protest by the Candlewood Suites hotel on Pecan Park Boulevard.
This week, Austin City Council will vote on a proposal to buy the property and use it to provide transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness.
During the protest Sunday morning, neighbors of the hotel argued that the plan would not solve Austin’s homelessness problem.
Some said the location would not help homeless people, while others said it would impact the community, citing safety concerns.
On Wednesday, the city council approved the purchase of the Texas Bungalows & Suites on Burnet Road in north Austin for an amount to not exceed $6.7 million.
A vote on Candlewood Suites was also due to take place last week, but the decision was postponed at the request of Council Member Mackenzie Kelly, who requested an additional week to share the plan with the public… (LINK TO STORY)
[TEXAS]
Governor Abbott Delivers 2021 State Of The State Address (Office of the Governor)
Lawyer tied to Texas AG probe found tracking device on truck (Associated Press)
A Texas lawyer says he found a tracking device on his pickup truck during an escalating court battle with a businessman at the center of an FBI investigation into Attorney General Ken Paxton. In a court filing Monday, Steve Lemmon offered no evidence of how the tracker came to be on his truck and acknowledged not knowing who put it there. But he said “the surveillance clearly appears to be tied to” his case with Nate Paul and that trackers were also found by other people whom the real estate developer sees as “business adversaries.”
It is generally a crime for anyone other than law enforcement to put a tracker on someone else’s vehicle in Texas. While the devices’ origins are unclear, their discovery adds espionage-tinged intrigue to the imbroglio around Paxton and Paul, the embattled developer whom the Republican is accused of breaking the law to help.
A person familiar with the matter said the FBI is investigating the origins of the tracking devices. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The FBI declined to comment. Paul’s lawyer, Michael Wynne, called the suggestion that his client had something to do with the devices “shocking.” During sworn testimony last year, he objected and told Paul he did not have to answer many questions, including ones about trackers.
“I have absolutely no reason to believe that Mr. Paul would have anything to do with anything like that and would expect Mr. Lemmon to have sound proof before he makes that kind of inflammatory allegation,” Wynne told The Associated Press. Lemmon, who declined to comment, said in the court filing that the FBI has “custody” of the device found on his truck. He did not name the other people he says found trackers. Paul has been under FBI investigation since at least 2019. Last year, he launched a campaign of counter allegations against the agents, federal judges and others, including Lemmon’s client.
Paxton hired an outside lawyer to investigate these claims in September, prompting eight of his top deputies to report him to the FBI, which then opened a probe into Texas’ top lawyer. Paxton has broadly denied wrongdoing. His defenses attorney, Philip Hilder, declined to comment when asked about the tracking devices Monday… (LINK TO STORY)
17 Texas-based companies make World’s Most Admired list and nine are in Dallas-Fort Worth (Dallas Morning News)
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, San Antonio-based USAA and Westlake-based Charles Schwab are among the world’s most admired companies in Fortune’s 2021 ranking.
Southwest scored highest among Texas companies, ranking 14th overall. USAA was 27th, and Schwab came in 44th. Apple topped the list for the 14th year in a row.
Fourteen other Texas-based companies made the list of 333, although Fortune only assigns rankings to the top 50. Of the Texas companies, nine are in Dallas-Fort Worth.
The ranking also includes a number of companies headquartered elsewhere but with a major North Texas presence, such as Toyota, PepsiCo, Keurig Dr Pepper, Abbott Laboratories and AmerisourceBergen.
The business magazine partners with global management firm Korn Ferry for its annual survey gauging corporate reputations. The winners were picked from a pool of 670 high-revenue companies in 30 countries and in various industries.
Korn Ferry asked 3,820 executives, directors and analysts to rate companies on nine criteria, from investment value and quality of management and products to social responsibility and ability to attract talent. The firm has conducted the research for Fortune’s ranking since 1997… (LINK TO STORY)
[NATION]
Robinhood CEO expected to testify before Maxine Waters' panel on GameStop (Politico)
The CEO of online stock brokerage Robinhood is expected to testify before a House committee on Feb. 18 as lawmakers dig into the firm's role in the tumultuous trading of GameStop stock and other companies, people familiar with the matter said.
The hearing before the House Financial Services Committee with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, whose appearance has not been formally announced, is primed to be a blockbuster. Share prices of GameStop and other struggling companies skyrocketed last week in part thanks to traders on the social media website Reddit targeting Wall Street hedge funds, which were betting heavily that the stock price would fall. Some of the investors betting against the companies — a maneuver called short selling — subsequently suffered huge losses.
Robinhood’s decision on Thursday to stop its customers from buying the stocks sent GameStop's shares plummeting, drawing criticism of the brokerage from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and other Democrats are vowing to investigate what role Wall Street hedge funds may have played in the move to halt trading… (LINK TO STORY)
Amazon Unveils Outdoorsy New HQ2, Renewing Its Commitment to Offices (The Wall Street Journal)
Amazon. com Inc.’s plans for its new northern Virginia headquarters feature an outdoor theme, the latest sign that big tech companies are getting more creative with office space rather than abandoning it.
Phase two of the company’s development in Arlington, Va., calls for three 22-story office buildings and smaller retail buildings surrounded by woodlands, an outdoor amphitheater, a dog run and parking for around 950 bicycles.
The centerpiece will be the site’s fourth and tallest tower, a 350-foot structure dubbed the Helix because it will feature two spiraling outdoor walkways with trees and plants from Virginia that twist to the building’s top.
Amazon, which is unveiling the designs on Tuesday, said the cluster of new office and retail buildings will accommodate around 13,000 employees, with room for more. The project is part of Amazon’s more than $2.5 billion, 25,000-employee office campus, which the Seattle-based company calls its second headquarters.
While numerous tech firms have pledged to allow employees to work from home even after the coronavirus pandemic is contained, Amazon, Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and others have continued to expand their urban office footprints. By investing heavily in big city real estate, they are betting that office space will be an important part of their corporate culture after the pandemic is over.
“We have to think about this as a long-term investment,” said John Schoettler, Amazon’s vice president of global real estate and facilities. “These buildings will begin to deliver in 2025. And so we believe that the world will be a much improved place than it is currently.”… (LINK TO STORY)
Greene a 'cancer' on Republicans, McConnell says, as Democrats push to drop her from committees (Reuters)
Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican, said on Monday that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s embrace of conspiracy theories was a “cancer” on their party, as House Democrats moved to strip her of committee assignments.
Incendiary comments Greene made including denying that school shootings took place and expressing support for violence have emerged in recent days.
Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz introduced a resolution to remove the newly elected Republican representative from Georgia from her seats on the education and budget committees of the House of Representatives.
“Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country,” McConnell, the Senate minority leader, said in a statement to reporters.
“Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality,” he said… (LINK TO STORY)