BG Reads | News You Need to Know (August 5, 2021)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin leaders question designated homeless camp plan (ABC KVUE)
Austin city leaders appear to be leaning toward scrapping a plan to make designated camping sites for the city's homeless population.
In a letter addressed to the mayor and the Austin City Council, Homeless Strategy Officer Dianna Grey provided updates on the City's various initiatives that are currently working to provide shelter for those experiencing homelessness in the city.
However, Grey said the two City-owned sites that are qualified for a designated encampment would require extensive community outreach and engagement, additional staffing and operational funding for zoning, a site plan and approval from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, as required by HB 1925.
"Given the timeline, substantial staff effort and financial resources necessary to pursue the creation of a designated encampment on either of the two identified City-owned properties, staff requests direction from Council before initiating any further activity related to community engagement, rezoning, application for state approval, or operational planning," said Grey in the letter.
Grey said City staff will continue to work toward the creation of additional shelter beds or alternatives in the community while waiting to receive directions from the council.
This week, the Homeless Strategy Division staff will begin operations at the Northbridge Shelter. This City-owned former hotel will be utilized as a 65-room shelter and will eventually be converted into permanent supportive housing… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Music Commission pushes Council to recommit to $10M aid plan for venues (Austin Monitor)
The Music Commission has asked the city to hold to a May decision to provide another $10 million in federal assistance to Austin music venues, in response to recent recommendations by staff to reduce the next aid package to $4 million.
At Monday’s meeting, the commission unanimously approved the resolution, referencing Council Member Vanessa Fuentes’ resolution calling on the city manager to find a way to provide $5 million a year for two years to help preserve music venues that were forced to close for much of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
That assistance would be taken from the city’s portion of American Rescue Plan funds, which are still being allocated, though a large portion of the money is scheduled to be used for programs to house and assist the city’s homeless population.
Commission members said City Council should direct staff to meet the directive from the May resolution, since many of the city’s musicians and music venues are already economically threatened by the rising cost of living.
“We should just reiterate that this is what you said you were going to do. Unless you come up with some reasons why it’s been reduced, which does anyone have one? This is what you said you were going to come to the table with, and this is what we expect,” Chair Jonathan “Chaka” Mahone said.
The next round of assistance for music venues would likely be used as a follow-up to the Live Music Preservation Fund, which was approved in December and provided $5 million in two rounds of grants to venues that had fallen behind on rent and other fixed costs during the pandemic… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Massive new neighborhood pegged 45 minutes from Austin (Austin Business Journal)
As the region faces an extreme housing shortage, SouthStar Communities plans to bring up to 6,000 residential units, more than 300 acres of public parks, 35 miles of trails, four Comal Independent School District schools and more than 200 acres of commercial space near I-35 just north of New Braunfels.
That would put it about 45 minutes from South Austin.
About 123 acres of the residential property will be mixed-use — indicating a somewhat urban setting — and construction will take place over 15 years. The developers said it will begin construction this year with the first homes expected for completion by 2023.
New Braunfels-based SouthStar recently made a key hire to oversee the massive project. Chip Mills joined SouthStar as senior vice president to oversee planning and development of the development known as Mayfair. In all, the project spans 1,900 acres and is expected to create 2,000 jobs once complete. Mills will also work with the city of New Braunfels and Comal County to coordinate the community's pubic-facing elements.
Mills was previously senior vice president for Austin-based RVi, the planning and landscape architecture firm that designed Mayfair. There he was responsible for business development, market growth, strategic planning and marketing. He also guided development planning of real estate projects… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Travis County DA expands unit that investigates police misconduct (Austin American-Statesman)
The Travis County district attorney's office has hired additional attorneys to expand its civil rights unit, which investigates reports of police officer misconduct, as the unit handles an increased caseload.
The new hires are Jim Wheat, the former chief of special crimes for the Bexar County's DA office, and Millie Thompson, a civil rights attorney who recently stepped down from her position as a Hays County court-at-law judge.
Thompson's four months on the bench were fraught with disagreements with staff and colleagues that resulted in her filing cease-and-desist orders and lawsuits against them.
Officials also have moved Travis County's Assistant District Attorney Coulter Goodman into the unit, as well as Assistant County Attorney JD Castro.
Wheat will report to the unit's director, Dexter Gilford, while supervising the three other attorneys.
Garza, elected last fall, ran on a platform of police accountability and has recently indicted multiple officers since taking office. Garza said the new hires will enable his office to address the increased caseload.
“Our community has seen an alarming increase in incidents and reports of law enforcement misconduct,” Garza said in a statement. “In the past seven months alone, a Travis County grand jury has returned felony indictments against eleven law enforcement officers for charges of violence like murder and aggravated assault. In order to rebuild community trust and ensure the safety of all members of our community, we must hold law enforcement accountable when they break the law, and these critical new hires will ensure that we do that.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Local mask mandates pop up in defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning COVID-19 restrictions (Texas Tribune)
Local mask mandates are popping back up across Texas — even as Gov. Greg Abbott has stressed that local officials who try to enforce restrictions aimed at reducing spread of COVID-19 will be penalized.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is the most recent to defy the governor’s order. He announced Monday that the city’s nearly 22,000 city employees will be required to mask up inside city buildings where social distancing is not doable, such as bathrooms, elevators and conference rooms.
“The mayor has a right and responsibility to ask city employees to wear face coverings indoors to help stop the virus from spreading,” Mary Benton, a Turner spokesperson, said to the Houston Chronicle. “With the rise in the delta variant cases and high numbers of unvaccinated individuals, Mayor Turner is doing what is necessary to keep [city] employees healthy.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Two House Democrats who broke quorum missing from Washington, D.C., reportedly vacationing in Portugal (Texas Tribune)
The Texas House Democratic Caucus could not account Tuesday for two of the members who broke quorum and fled for Washington, D.C., over Republicans' priority elections bill, while a Texas Monthly reporter said the members were on vacation in Portugal.
State Reps. Julie Johnson of Farmers Branch and Jessica González of Dallas were not with other House Democrats on Tuesday in the nation's capital, according to a person familiar with the situation. On Tuesday evening, Texas Monthly reporter Jonathan Tilove tweeted that he "can confirm [Johnson] and her wife & [González] and her fiancé are in Portugal for a vacation they had been planning, with non-refundable tickets, for a year-and-a-half."
Neither Johnson nor González, or their staffs, responded to requests for comment from The Texas Tribune throughout Tuesday and Wednesday morning… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Detroit’s hot job market compares with Austin’s, but challenges remain (Wall Street Journal)
The Detroit region’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.4% in June, compared with the national average of 5.9% that month, according to the Labor Department. The Detroit metropolitan area’s unemployment rate tied economic-exemplar Austin for the 10th lowest in the U.S. in June among large cities, the department said.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to talk about Detroit’s unemployment rate in a positive light,” said Patrick Anderson, a Michigan-based economist and chief executive of the Anderson Economic Group. “In the last decade, Detroit has made a lot of positive improvements.”
The Detroit metropolitan area of 4.3 million people includes Detroit’s 670,000 residents and those in suburbs spread across six counties.
The unemployment rate for the Detroit area is returning to near pre-pandemic lows, but the rate for the city of Detroit itself was above 10% in June, according to the Labor Department. While that is down from above 30% a year earlier, it is more than double the unemployment rate in the surrounding suburbs.
The area’s low unemployment rate masks economic inequality in the region. In the city of Detroit, where 77% of residents are Black according to the Census, household income is lower than in the suburbs, and more than 30% live below the poverty line. In the broader region, where 22% of the population is Black, the poverty rate is 12.6%, near the national average.
Both Detroit’s and national unemployment rates have fallen from the spring of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic and related slowdowns caused unemployment to jump. Since that peak—when the Detroit area’s unemployment rate neared 25% and the nation’s was nearly 15%—Detroit’s rate fell below that of the nation.
The Detroit area economy grew from 2010 to 2019, and labor-force participation improved during that time, but during the pandemic, the share of adults working in the region fell. The share of those working or looking for work in Michigan was 2.5 percentage points lower than the country overall in June, according to the Labor Department… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
LA lawmakers consider requiring people to be vaccinated in indoor public spaces (NPR)
Los Angeles' unvaccinated may soon be banned from entering a slew of indoor public spaces, as the city copes with another wave of rapidly rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
City lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a sort of "no shots, no service" vaccine mandate, following in the footsteps of New York City, which is the first major city to impose such a mandate.
In Los Angeles, the new law would require anyone 16 and over who is eligible, to show proof of at least one inoculation shot before stepping into restaurants, bars, retail stores, gyms, spas, movie theaters, concert venues and sporting events.
"Enough is enough already," Council President Martinez, who proposed the motion alongside Council member Mitch O'Farrell, said in a statement. "Hospital workers are exhausted, moms who have put aside their careers are tired, and our kids cannot afford the loss of another school year."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Senate eyeing possible weekend finish for $1T infrastructure bill (The Hill)
Senators are in negotiations over wrapping up a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal, with an eye at finishing it as soon as this weekend.
Senators say they are looking at holding a key vote to wind down debate on Saturday, where the bill would need 60 votes to move forward.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said a vote to end debate was “possible” on Saturday, but cautioned that it wasn’t final because senators were still haggling over up to 60 hours of time they would still need to burn through after that vote under the Senate’s rules before they could get to final passage for the bipartisan agreement.
“We don’t know what time Saturday. They’re still negotiating what to do with the two 30-hour requirements that follow the cloture votes,” Durbin said.
Durbin added that there was a “hope” that once senators overcome the first 60-vote hurdle required to close down debate, senators would agree to let them move quickly to a final vote.
In order to have an initial vote on ending debate as soon as Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) would have to tee it up on Thursday.
Schumer has not said when he will take that step but teased on Wednesday evening that after more votes Thursday on potential changes to the $1 trillion bill, “hopefully we can bring this bill to a close in the very near future.”
If the Senate took its first vote on ending debate Saturday but wasn’t able to work out a deal to speed up the remaining hurdles, final passage of the bill could be delayed until at least Monday… (LINK TO FULL STORY)