BG Reads | News You Need to Know (April 5, 2022)
[MEETING/HEARINGS]
TODAY:
[BG Podcast]
Episode 153: Discussing the City of Austin's cryptocurrency study
Today’s episode (153) features Austin Council Member Mackenzie Kelly (District 6). She and Bingham Group CEO discuss her recently passed resolution "directing the City Manager to conduct a fact-finding study on the adoption, use, and holding of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies by the City of Austin.” -> EPISODE LINK
OUT WEDNESDAY: A Conversation with Jason Alexander, Chief of Staff to City Manager Spencer Cronk
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Staffers provide update on new equity-focused historic preservation plan (Austin Monitor)
As Austin faces rapid change, the city is drafting a new equity-based preservation plan – replacing the existing plan from 1981 – in hopes of better preserving Austin’s cultural heritage.
“Much has changed in Austin over the past 40 years … so we need an up-to-date plan with up-to-date policies and tools to help steward local heritage,” Cara Bertron with the Housing and Planning Department told the Design Commission March 28.
Bertron described how the historic preservation field has changed in recent decades. “There’s an expanded emphasis on telling the full American story, not just the stories of those with power and wealth,” she said, explaining that the field has increasingly recognized middle- and working-class heritage and explored how preservation can advance social justice.
As the plan’s name indicates, equity is a primary consideration. In light of that, the planning process has taken a bottom-up approach, with a working group of community members leading the plan’s development. The group, created by the Historic Landmark Commission last year, has met several times in recent months to discuss goals for the plan. Group members’ demographics roughly align with Austin’s demographics.
The group has also drafted an “equity evaluation framework” so that “equity is considered throughout the plan, not in a separate section,” Bertron said. “The hope is that it will result in recommendations and policies that don’t inadvertently cause harm to historically underrepresented communities.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Why the long TSA lines at Austin’s airport? Local and federal officials trade blame. (KUT)
The early morning lines at Austin’s airport are gaining notoriety even among NPR game show hosts.
“I fly a lot, and I often take early flights. I have never anywhere been in an airport that crowded that early in the morning,” Peter Sagal, host of the weekly news quiz Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, said after catching a flight Monday morning at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Airport staff was bracing for more than 30,000 passengers to fly out.
“It was just crazy. I couldn’t believe how many people were there,” Sagal said. “The line to get into the security line extended out the exterior doors onto the sidewalk.”
The lines are typically at their worst Thursdays through Mondays before 8 a.m., a problem caused by airlines adding more flights without enough Transportation Security Administration agents to screen passengers in under 30 minutes.
The TSA won’t give specific employee numbers for AUS, citing security concerns, but it acknowledges the airport has been short-staffed. The agency has offered hiring bonuses of up to $2,000 for months and has brought in workers from the National Deployment Force, a TSA office meant to send extra help when airports need it.
Behind-the-scenes frustration over TSA staffing blew out into the open over the weekend when a top official appointed by Mayor Steve Adler to oversee the airport said the situation was so dire it could force the airport to cut back on direct flights.
“TSA is seriously understaffed and unable to pay a competitive wage,” Austin Airport Advisory Commission Chair Eugene Sepulveda tweeted Saturday.
“Agents are refusing to move to Austin and are resigning. TSA is losing more agents than they are able to hire,” he continued. “We will have to reschedule routes and cut back direct flights if the situation continues.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Why data centers are flocking to Austin's northern suburbs (Austin Business Journal)
For the better part of a decade, Skybox Datacenters LLC CEO Rob Morris had been itching to break into the Austin market.
He patiently watched as his company expanded in other parts of Texas, including Houston and Dallas. The slew of technology companies moving into Austin over the past 24 months finally meant it was time to complete what he called his "Texas Triangle": the company plans to open the $548 million "Skybox Austin 1" in Pflugerville in January 2023.
"The hyper-scale cloud companies are looking to establish a large presence in Central Texas, in the Austin market. With that increase in demand, it simply made sense for us," Morris said. "The amount of interest and inquires that have been received since we announced a few weeks ago is unlike anything we've ever seen before."
With a booming tech sector and limited data center space, Austin and the surrounding Central Texas area have become a hotbed for data centers over the last year — a trend that experts expect will continue.
Skybox, along with Las Vegas-based Switch Inc. (Nasdaq: SWCH) and Seattle-based Sabey Data Center Properties LLC, have announced plans to open in the northern Austin suburbs, while Meta Platforms Inc. (Nasdaq: FB), parent company of Facebook, is planning a massive data center in Temple, investing about $800 million in the town that lies between Austin and the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
How a small Hays County city could double in size as development boom grips I-35 corridor (San Antonio Express-News)
The small city of Hays, located in Hays County along the quickly growing I-35 corridor, is among the smallest incorporated cities in the state, with a population at last count of 257 souls. It’s so small, in fact, that it doesn’t have a grocery store, gas station or any source of commercial tax revenue within its city limits. But due to the city’s proximity to Austin and San Antonio, an Austin-based developer is looking to build a 271-home subdivision, commercial retail center, and trail system in Hays’ extra-territorial jurisdiction that, when completed, will completely transform the small town — and the city’s leaders and residents are divided over what that will mean for the future of Hays. MileStone Community Builders, an Austin-based homebuilding company, is looking to take over an existing development agreement that the city signed with another developer, Walters Southwest, in 2013. That original development agreement called for several hundred homes and a big-box retail development right outside the city limits, located at the intersection of State Highway 45 and FM 1626.
The new development agreement, if the city agrees to a formal resolution that would begin negotiations with MileStone, is slightly smaller, but still significant for such a small city. Preliminary plans for Hays Commons, as the development will be called, propose 271 total homes — 184 homes on quarter-acre lots, 65 homes on third-acre lots, and 22 homes on 1-acre lots. The plans also call for an “urban grocery store,” a mid-sized retail space, and a nature trail system. Garrett Martin, the chief executive officer of MileStone Community Builders, says the newest iteration of Hays Commons is a “big shift away” from the 4 million square feet of impervious cover that was proposed for the original development. “We think that with the park system we’re going to put in there, the compatibility of uses is far better” for the city of Hays, Martin said. “It’s really been a win-win conversation with the leadership.” Larry Odom, the city’s mayor, has been a champion of working with MileStone and said Hays Commons is in the city’s best interest because the city plans to annex the commercial parts of the development, which will finally give the city commercial tax revenue. “I think it’s necessary for the city of Hays’ financial survival,” he said… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin city leaders taking key steps when it comes to wildfire mitigation (FOX 7)
Wildfire risk remains high across Central Texas with conditions expected to get even more dangerous as the week goes on. However, Austin city leaders say they're taking some key steps when it comes to wildfire mitigation.
With temperatures in the 90s Tuesday, and high winds starting Wednesday, Austin’s wildfire risk is set to ramp up big time.
"Temperatures are going to be going up. Humidity is going to be going down," said FOX 7 Austin meteorologist Carlo Falco. "We’re still talking about some really high, critical to even extreme fire danger."
City leaders say we’ve frankly been lucky so far.
"We live in the fifth-greatest community in the whole country for wildfire danger," said Division Chief Thayer Smith with the Austin Fire Department.
That’s why Mayor Pro-Tem Alison Alter pushed for a wildfire audit three years ago.
"It is a matter not of if, but when," said Alter.
It led Austin to be the first Texas city to adopt a Wildland Urban Interface Code — which holds new buildings in at-risk areas to higher fire standards… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick releases 2022 Interim Charges to the Texas Senate (Texas Senate)
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has asked committees of the Texas Senate to study 84 charges during the interim before the 88th Legislative Session. Lt. Gov. Patrick made the following statement upon issuing the interim charges:
“The interim charges I released today reflect my priorities, the priorities Texans shared with me as I traveled the state and those of the members of the Texas Senate. Senators submitted nearly 600 policy recommendations for the Senate to study before next session. My staff and I spent nearly a month reviewing these recommendations. Our final list of 84 charges continued to be revised through this weekend. The committees will begin work in the coming weeks.
Lt. Gov. Patrick’s 2022 interim charges are posted here… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants Texas version of Florida law that critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” (Texas Tribune)
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Monday he will prioritize passing Texas legislation that mimics the recently signed Florida bill referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
That state’s controversial law prohibits classroom lessons on sexual orientation or gender identity for kids below the fourth grade or any instruction that is not “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for older students. It has come under heavy scrutiny as opponents of the bill say it will harm LGBTQ children.
While Texas’ next legislative session doesn’t start until January, the issue will be addressed in Education Committee hearings before then, Patrick said in a campaign email… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Collins, Murkowski, Romney help break deadlock on Jackson’s nomination (The Hill)
Senate Democrats, backed by three GOP senators, voted on Monday night to break a deadlock on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination, paving the way for her to be confirmed by the end of the week.
Senators voted 53-47 to formally discharge Jackson’s nomination to the full Senate. It’s the first time the Senate has had to take the procedural step for a Supreme Court nominee since 1853.
GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitt Romney (Utah) voted with Democrats to make Jackson’s nomination available for a full Senate vote.
Collins announced last week that she would vote for Jackson.
Meanwhile, Murkowski and Romney said in statements on Monday that they would back Jackson, becoming the second and third GOP senators to support her, respectively.
“I will support the motion to discharge Judge Jackson’s nomination later tonight, and her confirmation later this week,” Murkowski said in a statement.
Romney added in a separate statement that he had “concluded that she is a well-qualified jurist and a person of honor.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Kansas rallies to win the NCAA men’s basketball title (Wall Street Journal)
Kansas staged a stunning comeback from a 15-point halftime deficit to win the NCAA men’s basketball championship with a roller coaster 72-69 win over North Carolina at the Caesars Superdome.
The Jayhawks, who trailed by as much as 16 and rocketed back into contention with a 20-6 run after the break, pulled off the biggest comeback ever in an NCAA title game, besting the previous record of 15 points set by Loyola Chicago in 1963.
The win brought a fourth NCAA title to a program that has made miracle wins a part of its legacy. The Jayhawks won the 1988 title with a team nicknamed “Danny and the Miracles,” led by Danny Manning. In 2008, it won in overtime with “Mario’s Miracle,” behind future NBA star Mario Chalmers’ late-game heroics.
“I told them at halftime would you rather be down by 15 at half or be down by nine with two minutes left, because that’s what we were in 2008,” coach Bill Self said after the game… (LINK TO FULL STORY)