BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 29, 2021)
The Texas Capitol
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
Austin City Council Special Called Meeting Agenda (11.30.2021)
Joint Meeting with Travis County Commissioners Court
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Small towns around Austin struggle with big-city housing costs (Texas Standard)
To get to Taylor from downtown Austin, you’ll likely take U.S. Highway 79 east through the booming suburbs of Round Rock and Hutto. Continue on and that development begins to thin out and the surroundings return to a semblance of what most of this area looked like 20 years ago, rolling farmland in Texas’ Blackland Prairie.
Driving into Taylor, the vibe is rural but not the usual trope of a dying, small town. The city has seen a gradual increase in its population in the past 10 years, and with that has come a renaissance of sorts. Taylor will soon be home to a $17 billion Samsung microchip-making plant, which is also expected to bring a lot of newcomers.
Downtown Taylor features the classic Louie Mueller barbecue joint, as it has for decades. But it’s now accompanied by new businesses that have made downtown their home. A brewery, coffee shop, some bars, restaurants and small boutiques are scattered among other various abandoned, historic buildings.
“All we had was basically fast-food restaurants,” said Gerald Anderson, a native of Taylor who serves on the city council. “And now you see a lot more mom and pop restaurants popping up, a lot of bars and just things for people to do. So, over the last 10 years, it’s changed dramatically for the better.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How Austin became one of the least affordable cities in America (New York Times)
A decade ago, Austin, the capital of Texas often deemed a liberal oasis in a staunchly conservative state, was among the most affordable places to live. Now, according to a forecast prepared by Zillow, a real estate company that tracks affordability, the Austin metropolitan area is on track to become by year’s end the least affordable major metro region for homebuyers outside of California. It has already surpassed hot markets in Boston, Miami and New York City.
With an average of 180 new residents moving to the city every day in 2020, housing inventory is very low, realtors said. Multiple offers, bidding wars and blocks-long lines outside open houses are commonplace… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
City of Austin to make recommendations to ‘change the character’ of 6th Street (KXAN)
Seating, dining, live music or even art installations could come to downtown Austin’s Sixth Street Entertainment District, as part of a pilot program referenced in city planning documents obtained by KXAN.
It’s part of the “Safer 6th Street Initiative,” an Austin City Council-led initiative focused on ramping up safety efforts along the famous street in downtown Austin.
Referenced in the documents is a goal to “bring a wider demographic to the 6th Street District and begin to help change the character of the street.”
A potential pilot program would allow businesses in the 200 and 500 blocks of the street to use designated spaces on the sidewalk, parking lanes and part of the street for seating, dining, live music or art, according to the documents. This would be allowed when the street is closed Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
Another potential pilot would allow the businesses on these blocks to use the sidewalk when the street is open for traffic, the documents say… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
What would remote work mean for Travis County? (Austin Monitor)
In September, Travis County announced its goal to transition 75 percent of its employees to work from home permanently, tasking Deloitte Consulting to smooth the process. On Nov. 18, commissioners convened a special session to examine the findings of Deloitte’s 14-week study on remote work in the county.
The presentation included case studies of other governments and municipalities that are implementing similar programs, as well as a focus on how telework would affect Travis County specifically.
One notable finding included the possibility of reducing 1.1 million square feet of county administrative space (out of the total 1.37 million square feet currently used), which would save money on real estate.
Deloitte recommended condensing all administrative space into the 700 Lavaca block. The money saved could then be invested elsewhere. “This does not factor in mission-critical spaces across the county which continue to serve a purpose for meeting the needs of residents,” Mayra Marquez, a Deloitte representative, said.
Some county roles are not eligible for teleworking, including those focused on maintaining county infrastructure, parks or facility grounds. However, of the county positions that are eligible, Deloitte found 100 percent of them would be able to telework at least one day a week.
“We estimate that the annual individual employee commute could be reduced by 450 miles and Travis County could reduce its overall carbon emissions impact by over 50 percent annually,” Marquez said. “This represents over 10,000 tons of carbon emissions.”
When the subject of video kiosks for county customer interaction was raised, Commissioner Ann Howard asked about its timeline, pointing out that many people still rely on face-to-face interactions for customer service.
“There’s a lot of people alive that we serve who need the face-to-face in a building. I can also imagine that every year we move forward, there’s fewer of those who rely on that,” Howard said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
“People should probably be worried”: Texas hasn’t done enough to prevent another winter blackout, experts say (Texas Tribune)
After last winter’s freeze hamstrung power giant Vistra Corp.’s ability to keep electricity flowing for its millions of customers, CEO Curt Morgan said he’d never seen anything like it in his 40 years in the energy industry.
During the peak days of the storm, Vistra, Texas’ largest power generator, sent as much energy as it could to power the state’s failing grid, “often at the expense of making money,” he told lawmakers shortly after the storm.
But it wasn’t enough. The state’s grid neared complete collapse, millions lost power for days in subfreezing temperatures and more than 200 people died.
Vistra Corp. said it's protecting 12 miles of pipes at its Midlothian plant with insulation that contains heating strips to prevent freezing during extreme weather conditions. Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune
Since the storm, Texas lawmakers have passed legislation aimed at making the grid more resilient during freezing weather. Signing the bill, Gov. Greg Abbott said “everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid.”
But Morgan isn’t so sure. His company has spent $50 million this year preparing more than a dozen of its plants for winter. At the company’s plant in Midlothian, workers have wrapped electric cables with three inches of rubber insulation and built enclosures to help shield valves, pumps and metal pipes.
No matter what Morgan does, though, it won’t be enough to prevent another disaster if there is another severe freeze, he said.
That’s because the state still hasn’t fixed the critical problem that paralyzed his plants: maintaining a sufficient supply of natural gas, Morgan said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Matthew McConaughey says he won’t run for Texas governor (Texas Tribune)
Actor Matthew McConaughey on Sunday removed himself from consideration as a potential candidate for governor after months of toying with a campaign.
In a video posted to his Twitter account, McConaughey, who lives in Austin, said he was honored to be considered for "political leadership."
"It's a humbling and inspiring path to ponder," McConaughey said. "It is also a path that I'm choosing not to take at this moment."
McConaughey's video came just over two weeks before the candidate filing deadline for the Texas primary.
Since earlier this year, McConaughey said he was mulling a run for governor, though he did not specify whether he would run in the Democratic primary, in the Republican primary or as an independent. He has previously described himself as "aggressively centrist."
GOP Gov. Greg Abbott is seeking a third term next year. He has drawn at least three primary challengers, while Democrats got their strongest candidate yet earlier this month when Beto O'Rourke launched his campaign against Abbott.
Instead of running for office, McConaughey said he would continue to support “entrepreneurs, businesses and foundations that I believe are leaders” and “creating pathways for people to succeed in life.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Supreme Court to hear landmark abortion case this week (The Hill)
The justices will hear arguments Wednesday over a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks in a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.
The case poses the clearest test yet of the 6-3 conservative court’s trajectory.
Conservatives and anti-abortion activists have since 1973 sought to narrow or overturn the legal right to an abortion first recognized in the Roe decision. They hope the upcoming Mississippi case finally leads to its dismantling.
The state's Republican attorney general, in a court brief filed over the summer, explicitly urged the justices to overrule Roe and related rulings, calling the court’s precedent on abortion “egregiously wrong.”
“This Court should overrule Roe and Casey,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R) wrote, referring also to the court’s 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. “Roe and Casey are egregiously wrong. They have proven hopelessly unworkable. ... And nothing but a full break from those cases can stem the harms they have caused.”
Under Roe and Casey, states may regulate abortion up to the point of fetal viability, typically around 23 weeks, so long as the restriction does not pose an "undue burden" on abortion access. Mississippi’s law, which bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and makes exceptions only for medical emergencies or “severe fetal abnormality,” is a clear-cut violation of this framework, critics say… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
As Omicron spreads, studies suggest that travel bans alone don't do much good (NPR)
When the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was first identified in South Africa, the country's scientists were quick to inform global health leaders of the new mutations they had found.
Though scientists have little information about the new variant and aren't certain where it originated, several countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union announced almost immediate travel bans from South Africa and other southern African nations.
As the week began, Japan followed suit with far more restrictive measures.
Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida announced Monday the decision to reestablish entry rules for foreign travelers to limit any potential spread of the Omicron variant. This comes just weeks after the country reopened its borders on Nov. 8.
Kishida told reporters this step is a "temporary measure until information about the Omicron variant becomes clear."
Israel also implemented a blanket ban to all foreigners Sunday night after initially establishing restrictions on travelers just from southern African countries. According to The Jerusalem Post, under this new policy anyone returning from any country — vaccinated Israelis included — will need to isolate for three days once in the country… (LINK TO FULL STORY)