BG Reads | News You Need to Know (December 20, 2021)
Pennybacker Bridge
[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.
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Amid hiring boom, Austin jobless rate dips to pandemic low of 3.2% (Austin American-Statesman)
The unemployment rate in the Austin metro area fell to a pandemic-era low for the fifth consecutive month — coming in at 3.2% in November — as local businesses continued their scramble to hire workers amid the region’s strong economy.
It’s unclear whether rising concerns about the omicron variant of the coronavirus, first detected in Texas earlier this month, will disrupt the trend.
"Right now, I would say the biggest problem (for companies) is hiring enough people — not the prospect of omicron slowing their business," said Jason Schenker, president of Austin-based Prestige Economics. "The job market in Austin is very, very tight right now."
Businesses in the Austin area added 11,800 non-farm jobs to payrolls last month, lifting the total number of people employed in the region to nearly 1.19 million — a record for the fourth straight month and the latest indication that, at least on a macro level, the local economy is fully recovered from the pandemic-induced downturn… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Mixed-use options considered for future of police HQ site downtown (Austin Monitor)
Planners see a variety of possibilities for the eventual redevelopment of the Austin Police Department headquarters site downtown, with office space, affordable housing, retail, an event space and recording studio among the possible uses.
Those were some of the ideas discussed during a recent competition organized by Urban Land Institute Austin, which organizes local development and real estate professionals around issues of local interest. As part of ULI’s annual Battle of the Plans contest, two teams of young professionals created proposals for how to reuse the site at Eighth Street and Interstate 35 that has served as the base of police operations since 1982.
Currently the city is considering its options for how and where to eventually relocate APD headquarters, which will eventually allow for redevelopment of the 2.7-acre site that is located among some of the most desirable commercial and cultural districts in the city. Earlier this year, the Downtown Commission received an update from the city’s Office of Real Estate Services about the progress on determining the size and possible location options for the new headquarters.
In describing the site, engineer Jordan Cook with the Structures engineering firm said the variety of neighboring planning and public works projects offer many competing interests for how to use the APD location.
“This site comes with its own challenges and opportunities … one of those is intersecting Capitol view corridors, opportunity for development within the Red River Cultural District, the Palm District down south, and Innovation District up north,” he said. “On top of it they have to work around the (Austin Resource Center for the Homeless) as well as some of the satellite businesses and clinics that are around the area, and because it’s up against Waller Creek a lot of the plans had to work with floodplain issues and consider the Waterloo Greenway’s plans. There was also TxDOT’s cap-and-stitch plan for I-35, as well as the expansion of the Austin Convention Center, which brings with it a transportation hub.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Statesman PUD gets first Planning Commission hearing (Austin Monitor)
As the long-anticipated redevelopment of the Austin American-Statesman site at 305 S. Congress Ave. heads toward a City Council vote next year, the development team presented its vision to the Planning Commission on Dec. 14.
Preliminary plans for the nearly 19-acre planned unit development, known informally as the Statesman PUD, include 3.6 million total square feet of residential, office and hotel uses spread across six towers ranging from 215 to 525 feet tall. This includes 1,378 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of offices, a 275-room hotel, and 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurants.
Over 8 acres of parks, plazas and trails are planned along the shores of Lady Bird Lake, including a Great Lawn, a boardwalk and pier, a reconstructed hike and bike trail, enhanced bat-watching areas, as well as native landscaping and rain gardens. All public space will be ADA accessible.
Plans also call for a Project Connect Blue Line station, new streets (including an extension of Barton Springs Road), as well as protected bike lanes and trail connections.
The project’s team includes Endeavor Real Estate Group, architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), and Armbrust &Brown attorney Richard Suttle.
Suttle said the plan will provide everything lacking from the current site, which is basically an office building with a huge parking lot. “There’s no parkland out there; there’s no roads,” Suttle said. “And what this plan proposes is parks, roads, transit, open space, housing and trails.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
StoryBuilt finds funding partner for $1B in development plans (Austin Business Journal)
Redeveloping aging parts of growing cities is big business, and an Austin developer is making it notably bigger by pouring over a billion dollars into the market.
Austin-based StoryBuilt, a developer behind several infill projects in the city, has secured funding from Swiss private market investor Partners Group AG to develop 17 projects across the U.S. Six of those will be in Austin, which is seeking more density to combat affordability and traffic issues.
The joint venture will pour more than $1 billion into existing and future projects over the next four to seven years in Austin, Dallas, Denver and Seattle. The projects will all have a residential component, and could also include multifamily, for-sale residential and mixed-use components. Of the projects already in the pipeline, six are in Austin, three in Dallas, six in Seattle and two in Denver.
The Austin projects span all corners of the city, said Anthony Siela, co-founder and CEO of StoryBuilt.
They include a mixed-use community adjacent to StoryBuilt’s corporate headquarters on South First Street, which will include development on about 4.5 adjacent acres. The money will also help fund the second phase of Thornton Flats apartment community in Southwest Austin, among other projects.
“These are places where a lot of folks want to live, work and play,” Siela said. “They might have access to parks or be in close proximity to downtown. They might be able to have one car, maybe no cars at all.”
StoryBuilt has been an Austin fixture since its founding in 2001. It’s behind projects such as the Thornton Flats apartments, the North Bluff detached townhomes and the Bruno mixed-use development. Nationwide, the company has developed more than 50 communities. This is the first time it has done business with Partners Group, and Siela said this is StoryBuilt’s first joint venture of this scale... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
18 huge developments reshaping Williamson County (Austin Business Journal)
Williamson County has ranked as one of the fastest-growing U.S. counties for decades, yet somehow the area seems to just now be hitting such a stride, economically, thanks to a flood of billion-dollar developments — some tied to the biggest brand names on Earth.
Here are 18 mega-developments in the works, all of which promise to take the suburbs north of Austin to new economic heights… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
The push to ban books in Texas schools spreads to public libraries (Texas Tribune)
Local public libraries in Texas, including those in Victoria, Irving and Tyler, are fielding a flurry of book challenges from local residents. While book challenges are nothing new, there has been a growing number of complaints about books for libraries in recent months. And the fact that the numbers are rising after questions are being raised about school library content seems more than coincidental, according to the Texas Library Association.
“I think it definitely ramped it up,” said Wendy Woodland, the TLA’s director of advocacy and communication, of the late October investigation into school library reading materials launched by state Rep. Matt Krause in his role as chair of the House Committee on General Investigating.
In response to Krause’s inquiry, Gov. Greg Abbott tapped the Texas Education Agency to investigate the availability of “pornographic books” in schools. In the weeks since, school districts across the state have launched reviews of their book collections, and state officials have begun investigating student access to inappropriate content.
As more residents began turning their sights on local libraries, the state library association set up a “peer counseling” helpline for librarians to get support from others more familiar with book challenges.
“A library may get one or two [book challenges] in two years, or some librarians have never had challenges,” Woodland said. “So this is very rare and very unusual and different from the way challenges have been brought forth in the past.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Truck drivers protest 110-year sentence in deadly Colorado crash for driver with reported Houston ties (Houston Chronicle)
A wave of protests have emerged in the trucking community after a Colorado judge handed out an unusual, hefty 110-year sentence to a truck driver who was convicted in a fiery 2019 crash that killed four people and injured several others. The man, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, 26, was found guilty on 27 counts on Monday including vehicular homicide after he crashed an out-of-control semi truck that reportedly lost its brakes as he descended on Interstate 70, according to CBS4 Denver. The crash reportedly damaged or destroyed 28 vehicles. The four victims killed in the crash are Doyle Harrison, 61, of Hudson, Colorado; William Bailey, 67, of Arvadal; Miguel Angel Lamas Arrellano, 24, of Denver; and Staney Politano, 69, of Arvada, according to Daily Mail.
Aguilera-Mederos, who was 23 years old at the time, is reportedly from Texas and worked for a Houston-based truck company. The name of the company has not been reported. Investigators with the Lakewood Police Department said no alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash, and his attorney told the judge that Aguilera-Mederos had no prior criminal record and he was an immigrant from Cuba who greatly valued his life in America, according to the report. His case has caused a national uproar as many question how Aguilera-Mederos could net such a lengthy sentence in comparison with other crimes that have gotten lighter sentences like rape and sexual assault. "Actual rapists and murderers, WHO MEANT HARM, aren’t given 110 years," wrote journalist and author Shaun King on Facebook. During sentencing, the judge said under guidelines set by the law his sentence could be no less than 110 years, CBS4 reported. "I accept and respect what the defendant has said about his lack of intent to hurt people, but he made a series of terrible decisions, reckless decisions," the judge said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
South Oak Cliff didn’t just make history. It rewrote the narrative around inner-city schools (Dallas Morning News)
Back in the ‘70s, the weight room at South Oak Cliff was a hollowed-out place under the school called the “Dungeon.” They didn’t have actual weights. Flipped massive metal flywheels instead. The team would come out of those workouts under the school looking like mud wrestlers, not football players. For years, they didn’t even have their own practice field. For many, Saturday was a long time coming. Horace Bradshaw, who played for South Oak Cliff in the ‘70s and is now president of SOC’s booster club, always wondered what an inner-city school could do if it had a semblance of its suburban rivals’ largesse. On a historic day at Jerry World, when South Oak Cliff beat Liberty Hill, 23-14, for the Class 5A Division II title, Dallas ISD’s first in 63 years and only the third UIL football crown in the district’s history, Bradshaw got his answer. “This team,” he said, “will always be the standard.”
Not just for South Oak Cliff or Dallas, either. This was bigger than that. “People didn’t believe in the inner city,” said Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa, a Sunset graduate, as he watched a celebration on the field. “This has been an amazing journey. Oak Cliff prevailed! “The hood!” Hinojosa then excused himself to go join the party, which was long overdue. Even though other local schools like Highland Park, Lake Highlands and Wilmer-Hutchins have won state football titles, no Dallas ISD team had won it all since Carter in 1988, a championship subsequently stripped. Before that, you have to go back to Booker T. Washington, which won the Prairie View Interscholastic League crown in 1958. The last UIL title won by a Dallas ISD school was Sunset in 1950 in the old City Conference, in which only a couple dozen urban schools competed. Before Saturday, the only time a Dallas ISD school won a state football title in true state-wide UIL competition was 1924, when Oak Cliff, now Adamson, beat Waco, 31-0. How hard is it for an inner-city school to win it all in football-crazy Texas?… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Black lawmakers threaten to cut off K St unless it diversifies (POLITICO)
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have a warning for Washington, D.C., lobbyists: Diversify your firms or you won’t have an audience with us.
Long a bastion of white men, K Street has found itself scrambling in recent years to up its representation of employees of color. But the threats from Black lawmakers to stop meetings with certain firms represents one of the most aggressive attempts to actually force K Street to change from within.
“We choose not to have any meetings with people who don't have African American or Latino lobbyists,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) told POLITICO. “You got to be way out of it if you go into a meeting repeatedly with people of color, and you keep bringing three white men from Yale. It's just, no.”
The Black Caucus has not taken a formal vote on whether or not to meet with companies or firms that lack Black male and female representation. But Cleaver said “the majority of the votes are already there for not meeting with them,” if anyone decided to hold a roll call at one of their weekly meetings.
The increasing power and sheer size of the Congressional Black Caucus in the Democratic Party makes it a formidable political force on and off the Hill. The caucus boasts more than 50 members and a number of committee chairs, along with the Democratic Party’s majority whip, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina (also a top Biden ally), and the House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries of New York. For K Street, hiring lobbyists with connections to members of the caucus has become an increasingly integral part of a firms’ competitive strategy.
“If you need to hire somebody to lobby the CBC or the CHC or the Asian Pacific Caucus or whatever like yeah, absolutely, I think it makes a hundred percent sense that you hire somebody that represents that community,” said Ivan Zapien, practice leader for government relations at the law firm Hogan Lovells, who is Hispanic.
But diversity remains elusive. A survey published in April from the Public Affairs Council found that just 17 percent of the public affairs profession — a broad term that includes lobbying or government relations — were people of color; 23 percent of respondents reported that there were no people of color in their public affairs team. The survey had a small size of respondents. But a glance at websites for some of the top D.C. firms that include pictures of their staff shows that lobbyists of color are few and far between, especially among the firms’ leadership teams.
“I think the CBC is just kind of, they're losing their patience because we've been talking about this for decades,” said Monica Almond, who co-founded the Diversity in Government Relations Coalition, which launched a demographic survey of the profession earlier this year… (LINK TO FULL STORY)