BG Reads | News You Need to Know (November 29, 2022)
[AUSTIN METRO]
Early voting starts soon in Austin's mayor, City Council runoffs: What you need to know (Austin American-Statesman)
Four runoffs will determine the makeup of Austin’s City Council for the next four years. All eight candidates on the ballot in December are Democrats, and political analysts say some of the races are between candidates with similar policies while others have more differences.
Every registered voter in Austin can cast a ballot in the mayoral runoff between Kirk Watson and Celia Israel, and residents of Districts 3, 5 and 9 also have a chance to elect one of the top two vote-getters to their council seat… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council seeks to streamline ‘missing-middle’ housing additions in Austin (Community Impact)
Smaller-scale "missing-middle" multifamily projects in Austin could soon move through a more rapid development process as officials seek to make it easier to bring a wider array of housing to the city.
Austin City Council is looking to tackle several issues related to the local housing crunch before several members' terms expire and their successors are sworn in next year. One change council will consider this week is the first step toward speeding up the construction of an array of projects with 16 or fewer units… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
County gets creative to counter ‘staggering’ number of fentanyl deaths (Austin monitor)
In the first half of this year, from January to June, 118 people in Travis County died from an overdose of fentanyl. This equaled the number of fentanyl-related overdoses from the entirety of last year.The outsized opioid-overdose figures spurred county leaders’ announcement of a public health crisis in May, which brought with it a host of directives – such as funding naloxone treatments and community harm reductionists – aimed at correcting the emergency… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Report: Austin home prices cooling faster than anywhere else in US (Austin business journal)
A new report shows housing prices in Austin are cooling off the fastest this year compared to other cities that boomed during the pandemic.
The latest data shared Nov. 28 from real estate company Redfin showed Austin’s median price per square foot went up 1.3% year-over-year in October. Despite that slight increase, it is still 23 percentage points lower than what Redfin reported in February.
That difference makes it the biggest drop in home-price growth over other American cities such as Phoenix; San Jose, California; Las Vegas and Boise, Idaho… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
In after-hours notice, Gov. Greg Abbott announces another leadership change for the Department of Family and Protective Services (Texas TRibune)
After a tumultuous three years at the Department of Family and Protective Services, Commissioner Jaime Masters is out of a job.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that Stephanie Muth, a consultant and a former Medicaid director at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, will take over the top post in the new year.
Masters was appointed by Abbott in December 2019, taking the helm in the midst of an ongoing federal lawsuit against the state for the failures of its foster care system. Under her leadership, the department has come under fire for multiple high-profile issues… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Gov. Abbott targets discussions of gender identity in Texas schools (Dallas morning news)
Discussions about gender identity in schools are a likely target for the upcoming legislative session as Gov. Greg Abbott alluded to his support for stopping what he called “indoctrination.” The Republican governor on Sunday tweeted a link to a Fox News article about a Fort Worth teacher who reportedly came out to students and staff as nonbinary and discussed it with the middle schoolers. Abbott responded that lawmakers will “put a stop to this nonsense” during the session that starts Jan. 10. “Schools must get back to fundamentals & stop pushing woke agendas,” he wrote. “We will pass laws to get it done.” A spokeswoman for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking clarity on what types of laws Abbott was referencing. This is the latest of several moves by Republican lawmakers signaling an appetite for legislation that targets LGBTQ people, and discussions about gender identity and sexual orientation within schools… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Dallas could ban all gas-powered lawn equipment to address noise, environment concerns (Dallas Morning News)
Using gasoline-powered lawn mowers, leaf blowers and other landscaping equipment could soon be illegal in Dallas. Citing health, noise and environmental concerns, Dallas officials are developing plans to phase out the use of gas-powered tools for city departments, contractors, businesses and residents by 2027 or 2030. The ban would mandate use of alternative devices, like ones powered by electricity. The city is hiring a consultant group to help flesh out a transition plan and evaluate its impact on the public. Dallas officials, for example, don’t know how feasible it is for the average resident to switch to non-gasoline equipment or how many lawn care and landscaping businesses operate in the city. Small businesses aren’t tracked by the Texas secretary of state’s office, according to Susan Alvarez, assistant director of Dallas’ environmental quality and sustainability office… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Texans approved $35 billion in construction projects, the most of any state (HOuston chronicle)
In the November elections, voters around the country approved $57 billion of borrowing for construction projects, on track for the most in a single election in the 10-year history of S&P Global Intelligence tracking the data, with Texas voters approving by far the most of any state. Voters from 39 counties in Texas approved more than $35 billion for school buildings, libraries, wastewater facilities, football stadiums, parks, roads and other projects. Experts said the explosion of borrowing for infrastructure in Texas was largely a product of population growth and the pandemic. Many projects were delayed during the worst days of the COVID-19 crisis… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Biden helped Democrats avert a ’22 disaster. What about ’24? (New York Times)
Expecting a cataclysmic midterm election, many Democrats had been bracing for an end-of-year reckoning with whether President Biden, who once declared himself a “bridge” to a new generation, should give way to a new 2024 standard-bearer. But the stronger-than-expected Democratic showing has taken the pressure off. And Donald J. Trump’s decision to announce a run for president again, and the Republican backlash against him, have abruptly quieted Democrats’ public expressions of anxiety over Mr. Biden’s poor approval ratings, while reminding them of Mr. Biden’s past success over Mr. Trump. Now, as Mr. Biden mulls a decision over whether to seek a second term, interviews with more than two dozen Democratic elected officials and strategists suggest that, whatever misgivings some Democrats may harbor about another Biden candidacy, his party is more inclined for now to defer to him than to try to force a frontal clash with a sitting president… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Elon Musk’s Boring Company ghosts cities across America (Wall Street Journal)
The unsolicited proposal from Elon Musk’s tunnel-building venture arrived in January 2020. To the local transportation authority, it felt like finding Willy Wonka’s golden ticket. Officials had started planning for a street-level rail connection between booming Ontario International Airport and a commuter train station 4 miles away, with an estimated cost north of $1 billion. For just $45 million, Mr. Musk’s Boring Co. offered to instead build an underground tunnel through which travelers could zip back and forth in autonomous electric vehicles. Dazzled by Boring’s boasts that it had revolutionized tunneling, and the cachet of working with the billionaire head of EV maker Tesla Inc. the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority dumped plans for a traditional light rail and embraced the futuristic tunnel… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
San Francisco considers allowing law enforcement robots to use lethal force (NPR)
Should robots working alongside law enforcement be used to deploy deadly force?
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is weighing that question this week as they consider a policy proposal that would allow the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) to use robots as a deadly force against a suspect.
A new California law became effective this year that requires every municipality in the state to list and define the authorized uses of all military-grade equipment in their local law enforcement agencies.
The original draft of SFPD's policy was silent on the matter of robots… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
Bingham Group Week in Review (11.23.2022)
Bingham Group Associate Hannah Garcia and CEO A.J. recap the week (and the week ahead) in City of Austin Politics. (Episode 172)
Happy Thanksgiving!
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