BG Reads | News You Need to Know (December 13, 2021)
atx in front of Whole Foods N. Lamar (Austin, TX)
[BINGHAM GROUP]
The BG Podcast is back! EP. 148 features Jose "Chito" Vela III a candidate for Austin's Council District 4.
The immigration and defense attorney declared in early November, following Council Member Greg Casar announcing his candidacy for Congress (triggering an automatic resignation).
Bingham Group CEO A.J. and Associate Wendy Rodriguez discuss Chito's campaign and what he hopes to achieve if elected.
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin pursues code amendments to make granny flats, homes in commercial areas easier to build (Austin Business Journal)
City officials have initiated changes to Austin's zoning code in an effort to address one of the Texas capital's most pressing issues.
Austin City Council met on Dec. 9 for its last regular meeting of the year, and it kick-started code amendments and other efforts that could help more affordable housing units get on the ground, which include expanding access to accessory dwelling units and allowing more residential uses in commercial zones.
Council's action began the process of changing the city code, which will also require input from stakeholder groups and city commissions. Council will consider final approval for the amendments at a later date.
For months, Council has discussed the need to take a piecemeal approach to altering the land development code, which determines what can be built where in the city, since a previous multi-year effort to more broadly rewrite the code is held up by a lawsuit. Advocates for change argue that Austin's zoning rules from the 1980s need to be updated to compensate for the city's new standing as one of the biggest cities in the United States. It would encourage more dense development, which some believe could make the creation of affordable units more accessible.
Others worry sweeping changes to the code could impact quality of life if dense developments rise near existing neighborhoods.
From 2010 to 2020, the city of Austin population shot up 171,465 to 961,855, or 21.7%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. During the same time, the median home value rose 71%, according to city data.
At a Dec. 7 work session, Austin Mayor Steve Adler noted that Council needs to make progress on as many changes as it can to address the city's biggest issue.
“The existential challenge we have right now is housing costs, rental costs and home price, which are just over the last 12 months going through the roof,” Adler said. “Trying to find as many different ways as we can get at this and better understand this, I support because it’s the issue right now in our city.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Amid affordability crisis, Austin will consider studying what it costs to build new housing (Austin Monitor)
Austin City Council members on Thursday asked city staff to look into what it would cost to analyze how much it, well, costs to build new housing. The study, if given the green light early next year, would also focus on how this impacts the price of buying or renting a home and what the city can do to lower these costs.
Council supported the measure only after a postponement and hours of discussion about the breadth of the study. Some members, including Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison, who wrote the measure, were frustrated by the delays.
“I’d really, really like to just move forward,” she said at Thursday’s Council meeting. “We’re just asking for information. We’re not doing more than asking for information.”
In the past year, the price of housing in Austin has risen at a historic pace. Homes in the city, on median, now sell for $536,000, a price that reflects more than a 20% annual increase. The average monthly rent in the metro area has surpassed $1,500, an increase of about $300 in half a year.
“The clock is ticking on housing,” Council Member Paige Ellis, who represents Southwest Austin, said. “I want this information back as soon as staff is able to compile all of the information, because we are all trying to work together up here to make sure we are making housing more accessible and more affordable in our community.”
If the city can better understand what it costs to build new housing, it could presumably come up with ways to lower those costs. But some Council members pointed out that the city has only so much control over items like labor and supply costs, and that even the costs it can control, like permitting fees, are hindered by state law.
“I think it’s really important for us to center this conversation about housing around what is actually within the city of Austin policymakers’ and staff’s authorities,” said Council Member Leslie Pool, who represents parts of Northwest Austin… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
TD with 9 seconds left lifts LBJ past Chapel Hill, into state championship game (Austin American-Statesman)
As the pass from LBJ quarterback Oscar Gordon III floated toward Noah Baker in the end zone on the Jaguars’ last snap of the game, coach Jahmal Fenner had one thought flash through his mind.
“Touchdown,” he said. “That’s why we called it. Noah is a star; he’s on the rise. Just put it up there and let him make a play. He plays basketball, and he came down with the rebound. It was his time.”
Baker's touchdown catch with 9 seconds left in the game certainly came at the right time for LBJ, which beat Tyler Chapel Hill 38-35 in a Class 4A Division I state semifinal Saturday at the Ford Center. The win propels LBJ into its first state championship game in a school history that began in 1974, and it secures the Austin school district’s first title game appearance since Reagan lost to Tyler John Tyler in 1973.
With a win over Stephenville at 11 a.m. Friday at AT&T Stadium, the No. 1 Jags (15-0) would become just the second Austin school district program to win a state championship. Reagan, now known as Northeast, won titles in 1967, 1968 and 1970… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas electricity regulators say most power generation facilities are ready for winter. That alone won't stop a blackout. (Texas Tribune)
Ten months after a devastating winter storm crashed the state’s electrical grid, the majority of electric generation facilities have made the changes needed to protect their infrastructure from extreme cold, Texas electricity regulators said Friday in their first status report on power companies’ preparations.
While more than 70% of companies said they are ready for winter, some submitted “good-cause” exemption requests. Regulators said a majority of the requests “do not indicate that the plants will be unprepared to operate under extreme weather this winter,” said the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which oversees the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator that filed Friday’s report.
“Many of the requests are for extensions of a few weeks to complete weatherizing,” the commission said in a news release.
Calpine, which represents about 10% of the power generation capacity on the ERCOT grid, is one of those companies. Calpine told the grid operator that 25 of its power stations were not prepared for winter by the regulators’ Dec. 1 deadline. But a company spokesperson said weatherization upgrades are in progress at all of those facilities and will be complete by the end of December.
“We have invested tens of millions of dollars at these facilities and have taken steps to assure reliable fuel supply for the coming winter,” spokesperson Brett Kerr said in a statement to the Tribune. “In short, Calpine is ready to meet the call to produce the power Texans need to keep the lights on.”
Friday’s report, however, only covers the electricity generation piece of the state’s power grid supply chain. Regulators overseeing natural gas, which fuels a majority of power in Texas, including power plants, homes and businesses, have been moving more slowly on weatherization improvements... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
For Texas Governor Abbott, hard right turn followed a careful rise (New York Times)
Gov. Greg Abbott surprised some on his staff when he arrived at his office this fall with plans for a new pandemic decree: a ban on mandated vaccinations by private employers in Texas. The decision was a stark departure for the two-term governor, an intrusion into business decisions of the sort Mr. Abbott had long opposed — and had indeed opposed just two months earlier. “Private businesses don’t need government running their business,” a spokeswoman had said then. His about-face drew criticism from major Texas business groups, from corporations like American Airlines and from a powerful player in local Republican politics, Texans for Lawsuit Reform. It also prompted frustration among some of the governor’s staff. Those who have known Mr. Abbott and watched his rise — from lawyer to state court judge to attorney general and, ultimately, to governor — have been stunned at his sudden alignment with the Republican Party’s most strident activists.
But as a governor with a keen sense of the political winds, in a state where Republican domination remains complete, his ban on vaccine mandates was in keeping with his penchant for reading the moment. And at this moment, even in business-centered Texas, corporate interests are out and cultural concerns are in. He is overseeing an audit of the 2020 results in four large counties in Texas, a state that the former president, Donald J. Trump, won by more than 5 points. He called for and signed into law restrictions on transgender athletes after appearing content, four years earlier, to watch bathroom restrictions on transgender Texans fail in the face of opposition from businesses. He went from a mask mandate last year to a ban on such orders this spring. His rightward shift will be tested next year as he faces his most well-known and well-funded Democratic challenger yet, Beto O’Rourke, who announced his run late last month. Their contest raises the question of how far right a Texas governor can go and still hold on against a rising tide of Democrats in the state’s largest cities and suburbs. The election is also an important test of Mr. Abbott’s strength on the national stage, where he is frequently mentioned alongside potential non-Trump presidential candidates like Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, even as his aides insist he is not interested. His attacks on Mr. O’Rourke have doubled as attacks on President Biden… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Pandemic payoff? D-FW leads major metros in pay gains (Dallas Morning News)
The Dallas region isn’t only a leader in job growth and migration. It’s also surpassing rival metros in pay gains — and by a big margin. In the 12 months ended in October, average weekly earnings rose 8.3% in Dallas-Fort Worth, easily topping national and statewide numbers, and ranking No. 1 among the 10 most populous metros. Go back to just before the pandemic, and local gains are more impressive. Since October 2019, average weekly earnings in D-FW have increased $171 to $1,179 a week, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s an increase of 17%, far higher than the state and nation, and more than double the two-year gains in Austin, Houston and San Antonio.
Many factors contributed to the surge in weekly earnings here, including the movement of high-paying jobs from California and other states. Some specialized technology positions are attracting bidding wars, and there’s evidence that low-paid workers are getting big raises, too. “I can talk chapter and verse about this, but on a simple level, we’re paying a lot more for the same workers,” said Jim Baron, CEO and co-owner of Blue Mesa Grill and TNT/Tacos and Tequila. His average hourly rate for kitchen employees is about $18 an hour, up from $15 in the past year or so, he said. The bigger challenge is finding workers for the front of the house, in part because so many wait staff employees decided to switch jobs during the pandemic or stay home with their kids. Baron said starting assistant managers are getting $60,000 annually, up from about $40,000 five years ago: “We’re paying managers more money to compensate for not having enough people on the floor,” he said. Individual pay raises don’t necessarily match the growth in average weekly earnings. A workforce with a higher concentration of tech workers could generate faster growth in average weekly earnings, in part because it has more high-paid employees… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Chief Justice John Roberts warns Supreme Court over Texas abortion law (NBC News)
The chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, warned Friday that the Supreme Court risks losing its own authority if it allows states to circumvent the courts as Texas did with its near-total abortion ban. In a strongly worded opinion joined by the high court’s three liberal justices, Roberts wrote that the "clear purpose and actual effect" of the Texas law was "to nullify this Court’s rulings." That, he said, undermines the Constitution and the fundamental role of the Supreme Court and the court system as a whole. The opinion was a remarkable plea by the chief justice to his colleagues on the court to resist the efforts by right-wing lawmakers to get around court decisions they dislike, in this case Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal in the United States, within limits. But in this case, his urgent request was largely ignored by the other justices on the court who were appointed by Republicans.
His point to them was that the court system should decide what the law is, and it should resist efforts like that of the Texas Legislature to get around the courts by limiting the ability of abortion providers to sue. It is a basic principle, he wrote, "that the Constitution is the 'fundamental and paramount law of the nation,' and '[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.'" He cited as proof the landmark 1803 Marbury v. Madison case, which established the principle of judicial review, allowing the court to nullify laws that violate the Constitution. “If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the Constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery,” he said, quoting the 1809 U.S. v. Peters case, which found that state legislatures can't overrule federal courts. “The nature of the federal right infringed does not matter; it is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake.” The Texas law, which took effect in September, delegates enforcement to any person, anywhere, who can sue any doctor performing an abortion or anyone who aids in the procedure. That makes it virtually impossible for abortion providers to sue the state to block the law, S.B. 8. Texas has argued that the law's opponents had no legal authority to sue the state because S.B. 8 does not give state officials any role in enforcing the restriction… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
In response to Texas abortion ban, Newsom calls for similar restrictions on assault weapons (Los Angeles Times)
After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a Texas state law that bans most abortions there, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he'll push for a new California law that deters the manufacture and sale of assault rifles in the state. In a statement Saturday night, the governor said he was outraged by the court’s failure in a decision Friday to enforce longstanding constitutional protections in favor of abortion rights. But by not striking down the Texas anti-abortion law, which relies on private citizens for enforcement, Newsom argued that the court has endorsed states’ ability to create similar legal mechanisms to safeguard laws from federal court review. In his statement Saturday, Newsom referred to a recent federal court decision that overturned the state’s ban on assault rifles in which the judge compared the weapons to a Swiss Army knife. “If states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way,” Newsom said.
The Texas Heartbeat Act, also known as Senate Bill 8, declares that it is illegal to perform an abortion after about six weeks of a pregnancy but gives the state no direct role in enforcing that ban. Instead, it authorizes private lawsuits in state courts against doctors or clinic owners who violate its provisions. The new California anti-gun effort, Newsom said, would function the same way. Newsom said he was directing his staff to work with the state Legislature and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta on a new law that would allow private citizens to sue manufacturers or distributors of assault weapons as well as ghost gun kits or parts. "If the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add the threat of private lawsuits, we should do just that," Newsom said in the statement. The governor's pledge to pass a law restricting assault weapons through private litigation is exactly the kind of legal gambit that constitutional scholars have predicted since the Supreme Court majority declined to block the Texas abortion law, said Khiara M. Bridges, a professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. "Gov. Newsom is following through on the threat," Bridges said. "It’s just been academic up until now." Indeed, in a dissenting opinion in the Texas case in September, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. warned his fellow justices that Texas' attempt to get around prior prohibitions against abortion bans by allowing private citizens to enforce the law could provide a model for others to create comparable laws in different areas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)