BG Reads | News You Need to Know (December 27, 2021)
Downtown Austin
[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]
Former Austin Mayor Bruce Todd, 72, dies (Austin American-Statesman)
Former Austin Mayor Bruce Todd died Saturday from complications of Lewy body dementia. He was 72.
Todd served as a Travis County commissioner from 1987 to 1991, and again from 2013 to 2014 to fill out an unfinished term. He served two terms as mayor of Austin from 1991 to 1997, retiring from that public office "undefeated and unindicted" as he liked to say.
Todd's tenure as mayor coincided with rapid growth in Austin's population and tech sector. He is largely credited with the move of the city's airport from the Mueller neighborhood to the what is the former Bergstrom Air Force Base, along with efforts to set aside wide swathes of the Hill Country for the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve and to transfer the city's public Brackenridge Hospital to the nonprofit now known as Seton Ascension… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tovo ‘strongly considering’ a run for mayor in 2022 (Austin Monitor)
As Council Member Kathie Tovo enters her last year as District 9 representative, and her 12th year on City Council, she sat down with the Austin Monitor to discuss what she hopes to accomplish in 2022, including a potential run for mayor and how she responded to the considerable challenges of 2021.
While Tovo said 2020 was certainly her hardest year on Council, “2021 is a very close second.” Her main priority this past year was Covid recovery. Beyond Council’s collective efforts, Tovo has specifically focused on business recovery, having led relief efforts for Austin’s beleaguered creative sector, particularly musicians. Other notable initiatives related to pandemic response included strengthening child care in the city and increasing food access.
Tovo also pushed for recovery efforts in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, including an audit and several Council meetings “to make sure that we’re understanding in pretty concrete detail where we needed to have the processes working better.” The resilience hubs initiative, which she sponsored, forms a key part of the city’s disaster preparedness plans. The hubs, which will begin as a pilot and eventually expand to every neighborhood, are envisioned as a go-to resource for residents to supply food, water or warmth in a disaster.
2021 also marked a historic year in the city’s battle against homelessness. Tovo called the city’s allocation of $100 million in federal stimulus funds “a tremendous step forward … that will, I hope, help us get closer to that goal of ending homelessness.”
She pegged public safety as a key issue for the city going forward as crime rates rise. One solution is a fully staffed and well-trained police force. “We had lots of officer retirements,” Tovo said, adding that replenishing the force is “a primary concern.” She also supports the city’s reimagined police cadet academy. “I really believe that our cadet academy, our revised curriculum, is a model for the nation.” Within her district, Tovo focused on making Sixth Street safer after a rash of violence in the area this year, including a mass shooting.
In the housing realm, Tovo pushed for changes to the Downtown Density Bonus to secure more affordable housing. She also recently sponsored a resolution to open up more areas to accessory dwelling units and create a menu of pre-approved plans. Next year, she aims to address the “main challenge” of ADUs: connecting people to affordable construction loans. A resolution on this topic is planned for January or February, when other members may also bring other policies to make ADUs viable for more people.
Tovo hopes that Council members will work toward common ground in land use and housing discussions. “Let’s do what we have consensus on; let’s do what the community supports; let’s do what we believe – and what the data shows us – will have the most impact on creating the most number of units.” So far in 2021, Council has reached consensus, but this could change as some members bring more controversial policies.
Tovo said creating more affordable housing should be a chief concern in housing debates. “We need to make sure that as development is occurring, that we’re capturing some of that value to meet one of our highest challenges, which is the need for housing that’s really affordable,” she said.
In early 2022, all eyes will be on Tovo as she is expected to announce a run for mayor. While she wouldn’t confirm the run, she told the Monitor she is “strongly considering” it… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Alter says resilience has been the theme of 2021 (Austin Monitor)
Reflecting on her fifth year serving District 10, City Council Member Alison Alter recalls confronting significant obstacles, but maintains that Austin has come out the better for it.
“It’s been an incredibly challenging year, but we’ve set a lot of things into motion that I believe will make Austin a more resilient and sustainable place for people to live safe and healthy lives. If there has been a theme to this year, it has definitely been resilience.”
The concept of resilience has propelled Alter’s service on City Council in unexpected ways. Crises like the Covid-19 pandemic and Winter Storm Uri have changed the way she thinks about the interconnectedness of public safety, public health and economic resourcefulness in building a more resilient city.
“I didn’t come to Council thinking I was going to focus on public safety; in fact, I was much more focused on parks and environmental policy. But I’ve found that I’ve really dug deep into public safety issues through bringing together different disciplines and ways of deploying resources.”
In 2021, Alter and her staff continued efforts to expand the network of emergency medical services staff to better meet demands exacerbated by the pandemic. As chair of the Audit and Finance Committee, she has worked to identify creative funding solutions for such investments, such as increasing EMS transport fees and resolving its significant billing backlog… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Pool’s 2022 priorities include district-level plans, increased EV use (Austin Monitor)
With City Council set on implementing building code changes by individual plans and priorities, Council Member Leslie Pool said in 2022 every member of Council will get their own “time to shine” with the chance to push the changes important to their districts. Of course, each of those initiatives will need to have broad support to win the nine-vote supermajority now required to approve building code changes, as a result of the lawsuit challenging the comprehensive code rewrite that began in 2012.
In addition to updating the North Burnet Gateway Plan and amending the regulating plan for the Domain mixed-use development, Pool wants to push through policy and funding to create district-level plans that address the zoning changes in high-priority areas beginning with the Del Valle community in District 2 and the area around Lakeline Mall in District 6.
“It is to make things standardized, so we’re not approving zoning cases piecemeal, which is what we’ve been doing. Instead we’ll have a larger area written into a plan, because it’s pretty staffing- and resource-intensive to do zoning cases one by one,” she said.
“The Uptown ATX project is a real driver for me because included in all the elements, there’s 6 million square feet of occupiable space, plus the parks and the rail station. That’s kind of exhibit A for the district-level plan, but also is part of the North Burnet Gateway regulating plan, which also needs to be updated to not only embrace what we’re doing at the Domain, but to push out further beyond that, because that area is developing and we’re just having to do a lot of individual cases.”
Pool wants to address the need for “missing middle” housing by finding ways to incentivize developers to build the urban family residences, condominiums and townhomes included under single-family 5 and 6 zoning designations, rather than multifamily zoning that is likely to bring more objections from neighborhood groups… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Ellis sees opportunity for growth amidst 2021’s challenges(Austin Monitor)
Despite a year that brought both public health and environmental disasters, District 8 City Council Member Paige Ellis has pushed forward in her efforts to rethink transportation, parks and affordability solutions in our rapidly growing city.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has been a historic challenge, Ellis says it has opened up unexpected opportunities to rethink public space and mobility. “We’ve seen that as people change their habits, they’re open to commuting by bike, using public transportation, and using the car less when possible.”
This same idea drives Ellis’ Living Streets Program, which she launched in October following a wildly successful pilot program (called Healthy Streets) in 2020. Ellis says that Living Streets, which permits community-led street closures in residential areas, is especially important to neighborhoods lacking access to parkland or other recreational public spaces.
“I don’t know if we would have had this opportunity had so many not been stuck in their homes in 2020,” she said. “As we saw these streets vacated, we all started evaluating how we’re using that space, which is a public space, funded by tax dollars and open for public use.”
In 2019, Ellis received grant money from PeopleForBikes to attend a bike research tour in the Netherlands. Each morning, she and colleagues from cities around the U.S. heard presentations from some of the best minds in public transportation and bike infrastructure, followed by an afternoon of cycling to see their work in action.
“The phrase that has stuck with me the most is, are people tolerated in a space or are they invited to use that space? Is it easy for a pedestrian or cyclist to navigate an intersection, or are they fearful that a car is not expecting them?”
Ellis has been inspired to implement this wisdom, leading the sponsorship of a $460 million mobility bond passed in November 2020. This year, these funds took shape in the expansion of the All Ages and Abilities bicycle network, Safe Routes to School, and urban trails programs. Ellis says she’s been working hard to ensure that these bond dollars are stretched to their maximum potential, working closely with partners like trail construction contractors to iron out snags in permitting and cost challenges… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Sarah Weddington, lawyer in Roe v. Wade case, dies at 76 (Texas Tribune)
Sarah Weddington, the attorney who argued the landmark Roe v. Wade case in the U.S. Supreme Court that legalized abortion nationally, has died, according to a statement from her family provided to The Texas Tribune by Susan Hays, her friend, mentee and former student.
Weddington, a former member of the Texas House of Representatives, was 76 and had a series of health issues in recent years, Hays said. She was found unresponsive in her Austin home early Sunday by her assistant, Hays said. The official cause of death is not yet known.
"Her passion for reproductive freedom was matched by her compassion for our neighbors," U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said in a written statement. "She shows the tremendous impact that one determined woman can make. With Sarah gone, it is more important than ever to ensure that the fundamental constitutional freedom for which she secured recognition from our highest court is not also gone.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Anger over mask mandates, other covid rules, spurs states to curb power of public health official (Washington Post)
At the entrance to the Lowe’s in a central Ohio strip mall, a bright blue-and-white sign tells customers that, under local ordinances, they must wear a face covering inside. Next door, at Hale’s Ales & Kitchen, a sign asks customers to please be patient with a staff shortage — with no mention of masks. The city line between Columbus and suburban Hilliard crosses right through the strip mall, Mill Run Square. In Columbus, where the Lowe’s Home Improvement Store lies, the city council early in the coronavirus pandemic created a mask requirement that remains in place. In Hilliard, where Hales is located, the city council has not imposed a mask rule, despite entreaties from the top county health official as coronavirus cases spiked.
Under a new law in Ohio — one of at least 19 states this year that have restricted state or local authorities from safeguarding public health amid the coronavirus pandemic — Franklin County’s health commissioner Joe Mazzola can no longer intervene. The county health department was stripped of its power to compel people to wear masks even as the omicron variant fuels a fifth coronavirus surge in the United States. “We’ve not been able to put in place the policy that would protect our community,” Mazzola said. The number of states that have passed laws similar to Ohio’s is proliferating fast, from eight identified in one study in May to more than double that many as of last month, according to an analysis by Temple University’s Center for Public Health Law Research. And around the country, many more measures are being debated or being prepared for legislative sessions to start early in the new year. These laws — the work of Republican legislators — inhibit health officers’ ability to require masks, promote vaccinations or take other steps, such as closing or limiting the number of patrons in restaurants, bars and other indoor public settings. Often, the measures shift those decisions from health experts to elected officials at a time when such coronavirus-fighting strategies have become politically radioactive… (LINK TO FULL STORY)