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BG Reads 1.2.2024

BG Reads 1.2.2024

🗞️ BG Reads | News - January 2, 2024

January 02, 2024

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January 2, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

✅ Watson expects City Hall ‘shakeup’ to continue in 2024

✅ Austin City Manager search update

✅ Apartment construction booming in Austin

✅ Trump leads Biden among Hispanic, young voters: poll

Read on!

[CITY HALL WATCH]

🔎 2024 Austin Council Meeting Schedule

City Manager Search Update

Source, Mayor Watson’s office posted on the Council Message Board (12.26.23)

City contracted Mosaic Public Partners will “officially” open the application process on January 8th.
Council Members have been asked to provide a list of stakeholders they would like included in the process. Offices will have further meetings to discuss other aspects of the search, including views on the next manager’s qualities.
The application process will close on February 12th.
Mosaic will review candidates with Council in early March and we will arrive at a group of finalists.
The goal (with an emphasis that Council should’t feel rushed in any way) is for Council to decide on a new City Manager in early to mid-April, under two possible timelines:
- (1) Pick someone and they can start very soon after chosen; or
- (2) pick someone but they have a later start date.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

The City Manager is the highest ranking city employee akin to the CEO. They can only be hired or fired by the City Council.
The office carries strong executive power over the day-to-day operations of the city, as well as responsibility for carrying out Council policy directives.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Watson expects City Hall ‘shakeup’ to continue in 2024, with police contract a priority (Austin Monitor)

Mayor Kirk Watson says he didn’t see the widespread shutdown of city services during the February ice storm as an opening to drastically restructure how the city government is organized. But he did take it as confirmation that it was time for the city to change – in a hurry.

Within weeks of the storm, the city had former City Manager Jesús Garza serving in an interim role after the dismissal of Spencer Cronk. That move led to an ongoing wave of department reorganizations and staffing that some have seen as too disruptive to the city’s flow of operations.

Watson, however, is not among those critics. He sees Garza as crucial to moving the city forward until a new city manager can be found later in 2024... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

New leadership begins at Austin Police Association (FOX 7)

Michael Bullock spoke one-on-one with FOX 7 Austin's Meredith Aldis, discussing his goals and what he says needs to happen to ensure the community is safe… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Apartment construction booming in Austin even as rental rates fall (Austin Business Journal)

Roughly 18,000 multifamily units were built during the first nine months of 2023, according to commercial real estate firm Partners. In the third quarter alone, production nearly doubled compared with the same period in 2022, from 3,996 to 7,508 units built. But that huge increase in supply has led to a decline in occupancy rates, which fell to roughly 89% in the third quarter from 92% in the year-ago period, Partners reported.

The increase in supply in the Austin area mirrors national trends, with markets from coast-to-coast becoming less competitive because of a record amount of new apartments and rental units delivered. That trend is expected to continue into 2024 and could mean slower growth in rental rates or even cuts… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Plans for millions of square feet of mixed-use space on Colorado River in East Austin advance (Community Impact)

Plans that could bring millions of square feet of mixed-use space and up to 10-story buildings to the shores of the Colorado River in East Austin advanced in mid-December.

The proposed "Bolm Colorado" project from Kairoi Residential would bring thousands of residences, a hotel, and millions of square feet of retail, office, dining and arts space to two riverside industrial sites off US 183, Levander Loop, Linger Lane and Bolm Road.The redevelopment of those properties covering about 115 acres would be among the largest projects coming on the east side… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Senator becomes first woman Dean of Texas Senate (KXAN)

When the new year starts, Senator Judith Zaffirini will start her role as Dean of the Texas Senate. Zaffirini will be the first woman to serve as Dean. She previously broke barriers when she was the first Mexican American woman elected to the Senate in 1986.

According to Zaffirini’s office, she will take over the role of Dean once former Senator John Whitmire resigns at the end of the year to become Mayor of Houston on Jan. 1.

The role of the Dean is determined by seniority. Zaffirini said because the next three senators in seniority are male, it could have been a long time before another woman was in place to assume the deanship… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

John Whitmire is officially sworn in as Houston mayor in private ceremony (Houston Chronicle)

Former state Sen. John Whitmire was sworn in as Houston’s 63rd mayor just after midnight Monday in a private ceremony with family and friends at City Hall. Judge Victor Trevino III conducted the ceremony, and Whitmire took his oath on his mother’s prayer book and Bible, held by his daughters Whitney and Sarah Whitmire. “We worked hard for two years to explain our vision for the city of Houston and it's to have total transparency, to share with Houston what I see as a mayor," Whitmire said following his oath. "We have a great city, great people and we need to do everything we can to see that Houston goes forward and even becomes greater.”

Whitmire will take a public oath with the incoming controller and new and incumbent council members in a ceremony Tuesday at the Wortham Theater. Whitmire, 74, beat 17 other candidates to secure the position, culminating with a December runoff victory against U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. He replaces two-term Mayor Sylvester Turner, who was term-limited out. Whitmire, a lifelong Houstonian, enters office as the oldest elected mayor in at least 100 years. He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives at 22 years old in 1972, and later joined the Texas Senate in 1983.

He was the state Senate’s longest serving member, and stepped down from his position to take on the role of Houston mayor. “I don't think a 22-year-old gets elected in 1972 knocking doors,” Whitmire said. “I was elected by the people of my district, and they've kept me there. They sent me to the Senate. And now I see this as just a continuation of our public service and our calling.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

A new way to fund Texas community colleges focuses on student success, not enrollment (Texas Tribune)

Texas’ new method for funding community colleges could position two-year, public institutions as major players in training students on skills employers say are missing in the state’s labor force.

House Bill 8’s historic $683 million investment in community colleges rewards schools for getting students to complete a degree or certificate, transfer to a four-year university or participate in college courses as early as high school.

HB 8 passed with a near unanimous vote, a contrast to the political polarization that surrounded higher education in 2023 through contentious legislative battles over professors’ tenure and diversity, equity and inclusion offices… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

From Austin to Anchorage, U.S. cities opt to ditch their off-street parking minimums (NPR)

The city council in Austin, Texas recently proposed something that could seem like political Kryptonite: getting rid of parking minimums.

Those are the rules that dictate how much off-street parking developers must provide — as in, a certain number of spaces for every apartment and business.

Around the country, cities are throwing out their own parking requirements – hoping to end up with less parking, more affordable housing, better transit, and walkable neighborhoods… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Trump leads Biden among Hispanic, young voters: poll (The Hill)

Former President Trump leads President Biden among Hispanic and young voters, a new survey found.

The survey, conducted by USA Today and Suffolk University, found that heading into a critical election year, Biden trails with several of the key demographics that helped him win the White House in 2020.

Biden earned 34 percent support among Hispanic voters surveyed, compared with Trump’s 39 percent. That marks a large decline since 2020, when Biden earned 65 percent of the demographic group.

The president has also lost support from Black voters. After carrying 87 percent support in the demographic in 2020, Biden now has just 63 percent, the survey found.

His support from younger voters has dropped as well. In 2020, Biden crushed Trump by 24 points among the group. But the survey found that Trump now leads among voters under 35 with 37 percent support to Biden’s 33 percent… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Japanese investors return to overseas real estate with lessons learned from the 1990s (Wall Street Journal)

Big Japanese investors stumbled disastrously into the U.S. commercial real-estate market in the late 1980s, when they bought high-profile properties like New York’s Rockefeller Center not long before the market fell hard.

Now some Japanese institutional investors and real-estate companies are back—but this time it isn’t about flaunting trophy purchases. It is about diversifying portfolios for the long term and getting good bargains while the market is slumping.

Japanese investors in 2023 put $3.7 billion into commercial real estate in the Americas as of Dec. 11, the largest volume since 2016, according to data provider MSCI Real Assets.

“There may be people who need to sell because of their financial straits, which would provide a chance to make a deal at a reasonable price,” said Makoto Sakuma, a researcher at NLI Research Institute, which is affiliated with Nippon Life Insurance.

“Because real estate is a long-term investment, Japanese investors should look for opportunities when the market is cooling down rather than when it is heating up.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]

Next fall will see elections for the following Council positions, District 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor. Candidates can’t file for a place on the ballot until July 22, 2024.

Declared candidates so far are:

District 2