BG Reads | News You Need to Know (March 14, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin leaders back plans to explore city use of blockchain, cryptocurrency tech; support sector's local growth (Community Impact)
Austin is seeking to boost its presence in the blockchain and Web3 development space and could begin using cryptocurrencies in regular city operations, officials said during a March press conference centered on the city's backing of the emerging tech systems.
Austin has already become a home for several blockchain and crypto-related businesses and events, and the city recently waded into the tech itself through work focused on managing the medical records of residents experiencing homelessness. Blockchains, globally linked digital data networks, have become prominent in recent years for data storage and transfers and are foundational for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
Interest in blockchain, cryptocurrencies and Web3—a potential new blockchain-based version of the internet—has also grown in Texas as officials are seeking to further study, develop and promote the tech sector.
Mayor Steve Adler and District 6 Council Member Mackenzie Kelly were joined on March 10 by representatives from local tech, entrepreneurship and innovation groups to discuss Austin's role as a hub in the growing field. The pair also spoke to their hopes that the city can further evaluate the technology and potentially begin implementing blockchain in its own operations… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
5 takeaways from SXSW panel on homelessness, affordability with Austin's Adler, Miami mayor (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin Mayor Steve Adler appeared at his lone South by Southwest festival panel Sunday and addressed the opportunities and challenges that come with being a rapidly growing city of technology.
Twice in the hourlong session, Adler spoke of an "existential challenge" Austin faces: first while referencing the need to "keep Austin weird" by attracting artists, and later on housing thousands of people on the streets and reducing living costs to keep others from going broke and joining them.
Both challenges were spotlighted in "The New Silicon Cities: Austin and Miami," a panel in a sixth-floor ballroom at the Hilton Austin downtown. Adler was joined on stage by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, whose city has grown as a technology hub in the past two years and, like Austin, has siphoned talent from California's Bay Area… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Homeowners concerned about implications of updates to Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (Austin Monitor)
The city’s Transportation Department has begun updating Austin’s Strategic Mobility Plan for the first time since its inception in 2019, but not before encountering a few snags in community feedback.
“I think one of the issues we’re having is that the street level classifications are not clear about what they mean in real-life application,” Urban Transportation Commission Chair Mario Champion said at City Council’s Mobility Committee meeting Thursday. “Some of it boils down to wording, especially undefined words like ‘intensive development’ and ‘ideal cross-section’, which translates as aspirational rather than theoretical. People have been concerned that there will be 20 feet taken from their yards and cut-down trees, when financially and priority-wise this is very unlikely.”
Staff told the Mobility Committee that the revamped plan would account for recent upgrades to the city’s transportation design standards, as well as new infrastructure projects such as Project Connect. The briefing followed a public engagement survey that found significant community concern over potential right-of-way changes to residential streets.
“As we know, the city has been built over decades using old standards,” Transportation Department Director Robert Spillar said. “And we know now more than ever what is needed to allocate space in the right of way to our most vulnerable users to accomplish our Vision Zero, climate and multimodal transportation goals.”
The plan is a two-part document. The first part is dedicated to overarching policies guiding future transportation initiatives. The latest revision would add three new policies to this list, including one supporting increased pedestrian-oriented community street spaces, and two related to improving climate resilience and emergency preparedness measures… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
San Antonio startups still fall short on venture capital funding; Austin companies jet ahead (San Antonio Express-News)
San Antonio startups collected more venture capital in 2021 than they did the year before — and still fell farther behind their peers in Texas’ other big cities in the hunt for early-stage financing. Lew Moorman, a leader in San Antonio’s burgeoning technology industry, is frustrated by the gap. But he’s not surprised. “There’s too many of us in tech declaring victory and not recognizing our shortcomings,” said Moorman, chairman of the San Antonio industry group Tech Bloc and co-founder of Scaleworks, a local venture equity firm. “We need to take a hard look at ourselves and ask if this bothers us or not.”
Attracting the attention of venture capitalists — and their wire transfers — is key to building up San Antonio’s web of cybersecurity, information-technology and biotechnology companies. With few of deep-pocketed investors focused on companies here, it’s harder to lure entrepreneurs to the city. In 2021, investors plowed $93.1 million into 18 deals in San Antonio, according to Crunchbase, which tracks investments in startups. That was almost double the $47.1 million raised in 16 deals in the year before. But those numbers represent a small fraction of the investment hauls of companies in Texas’ other major urban centers. Dallas startups attracted investments of $1 billion in 107 deals last year, down from $1.3 billion in 108 deals the previous year. Houston firms brought in $1.7 billion in 136 deals, a jump from $475.33 million in 91 deals in 2020. And Austin startups blew them all away. They secured investments totaling $5 billion in 368 deals in 2021, up from $2.2 billion for 294 deals the year before… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texas judge halts child abuse investigations into transgender youth (Dallas Morning News)
A Texas district court judge on Friday temporarily halted all child abuse investigations into gender-affirming care for trans minors after a daylong hearing that pitted the mother of a transgender teenager against the state’s lawyers. District Court Judge Amy Clark Meachum read the temporary injunction from the bench late in the afternoon. She said it blocks the state’s new directive defining certain gender-affirming medical care as child abuse, and halts any such investigations until after a trial in the case set to begin in July. Just before 9 p.m., however, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted that he had filed an appeal that put the judge’s injunction on hold. Paxton said his appeal would allow “much-needed investigations [to] proceed as they should.”
On Saturday, lawyers for the plaintiffs called Paxton’s appeal “baseless” and said they’d fight to ensure the injunction halting investigations remains in place. “As we know, Attorney General Paxton has a troubled history following the law,” Paul Castillo with Lambda Legal told The Dallas Morning News. Paxton is under indictment for alleged securities fraud and FBI investigation for alleged bribery. “If any family is contacted by DFPS notwithstanding the trial court’s decision they should contact Lambda Legal’s helpdesk and/or the ACLU immediately.” Identified in court by a pseudonym, Jane Doe is a state employee who says she was put on leave and investigated because her 16-year-old transgender daughter is undergoing medical treatment. She and Megan Mooney, a Houston psychologist, sued after Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to open abuse probes into transgender youth receiving certain treatments. After the hearing, Castillo told The News his clients and all Texas families with transgender children can “breathe a sigh of relief.” “The judge’s decision reflects the recognition that the governor and department circumvented the legislative process and started a rule that terrorized families who love, support and seek the best care for transgender children,” said Castillo, senior counsel with Lambda Legal, which along with the ACLU of Texas, is representing the plaintiffs… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Dozens of corporations are still in Russia. It’s getting harder for them to leave. (Washington Post)
Hundreds of multinational corporations have cut ties with Russia as its military assault on Ukraine intensifies, bolstering the effects of western economic sanctions and redirecting their operations to serve desperate Ukrainian refugees. But for the dozens of companies that remain in Russia, it’s getting increasingly difficult to leave, experts say. Consumers watching the horrific humanitarian toll of the invasion have registered their disapproval of the businesses that remain in Russia, vowing boycotts on social media. But companies that leave now, experts say, could be seen as pandering, or worse: prioritizing profits and shareholders above human suffering. The corporate quandary is testing the mettle of some of the world’s most powerful brands, and the long-held business credo that countries that trade together don’t wage wars with one another.
“I would say to any corporate executive, you have to do what you think is right,” said James O’Rourke, a professor of management at University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “In the end, you have no control over what [President Vladimir] Putin or the central government will do. But if you want to keep doing business in the rest of the free world, you have to pay attention to what they [the rest of the free world] think of you. “This may be one of the moments in history in which proactive disinvestment is the best option. You’re invested there now. You hope that this remains a stable, predictable nation, but what I would tell anyone still doing business in Russia right now is that it’s really hard. If you can’t move money in and out of Russia in a convertible currency, what’s the point of being there?” The question is underscored by the now-viral spreadsheet compiled by Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his research team, which had CEOs racing to avoid being added to the roster of “Companies That Remain in Russia With Significant Exposure.” As of Friday, roughly 35 such companies have made no public statement signaling any intent leave the country. And even those who have committed to leaving have partial ties to Russia that will be hard to sever. “The risk calculus in recent days has been to your reputation scores,” O’Rourke said. “It appears now for many of those large businesses that the calculus is now to your assets, and you just have to realize that you’re no longer in control.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)