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- BG Reads 11.27.2023
BG Reads 11.27.2023
🗞️ BG Reads | News - November 27, 2023
November 27, 2023
In today's BG Reads:
✅ Austin airport reports record-breaking travel weekend
✅ Central Texas to see cold front and light rainstorms this week
✅ New York City may pay you to build a ‘Granny Flat’ in your backyard (New Yorkers Only)
More stories below. Read on!
[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
District 6
Krista Laine
District 7 (Open seat)
District 10 (Open seat)
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Austin airport reports record-breaking travel weekend (FOX 7)
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is expecting a record-breaking 22 million passengers this year, with nearly a million more travelers flying this year compared to last year.
The holiday crowds are expected from Friday, Nov. 17 through Monday, Nov. 27…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Central Texas to see cold front and light rainstorms this week. (Austin American-Statesman)
As Central Texans begin to get into the holiday spirit, this week's temperatures will make you want to sit next to the fire and cozy up. A cold front is expected Monday through Wednesday, with a rise in temperatures and rainfall Thursday.
Mostly cloudy skies can be expected throughout the week. Monday will see a low of 40 and a high of 56, with northerly surface winds reaching up to 10 mph, dropping the wind chill as low as 35 degrees in the early morning.
On Tuesday the high will again reach into the upper 50s, and then the temperature will drop into the lower 40s.
Temperatures will rise slightly Wednesday, with a high of 60 and a low of 44.
According to Nick Hampshire, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in San Antonio, a chance of "relatively light rain" and mild thunderstorms will increase at 6 p.m. Wednesday and continue into Thursday, concentrated on the east side of Austin.
A high of 69 degrees and lows in the 50s will continue from Thursday to Friday, with rain and thunderstorms likely from Thursday afternoon until early Friday morning.
Rainstorms will break Friday morning in time for the start of December, with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the upper 50s… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
City splits homeless services into new, separate office (Austin Monitor)
The city has created a dedicated office for homelessness services, in a move intended to let city staff address that area more quickly and decisively.
Interim City Manager Jesús Garza informed City Council of the change in a memo released Tuesday. He signaled some of his plans for solving homelessness in June, when he assigned David Gray, formerly assistant director of the Economic Development Department, to focus specifically on homelessness and report to Assistant City Manager Stephanie Hayden-Howard. That assignment came less than two months before Gray was appointed interim homeless strategy officer following the resignation of Dianna Grey.
“The City’s current organizational structure does not effectively respond to this critical priority in our community,” Garza said in his memo.
Garza notes the change will be effective Dec. 4, with Gray promoted to homeless strategy officer. Austin Public Health’s Homeless Strategy Division and other city staff who primarily work on homelessness issues, including the Homeless Outreach Street Team, will be moved into the new office.
A high of 69 degrees and lows in the 50s will continue from Thursday to Friday, with rain and thunderstorms likely from Thursday afternoon until early Friday morning.
Rainstorms will break Friday morning in time for the start of December, with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the upper 50s… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[BG PODCAST]
On this episode (224) Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham and Associate Hannah Garcia discuss the week of November 20th and 30th in Austin politics.
TOPICS INCLUDE:
✅ The HOME Initiative and What is the public outreach standard?
✅ 2024 Austin Council Race watch and more
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
[TEXAS NEWS]
Cornyn says he wants no part of bid to defeat Texas lawmakers who killed voucherlike plan (Dallas Morning News)
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday bucked the trend of top Texas Republicans who are condemning 21 GOP state representatives who joined Democrats in killing a school funding bill’s voucherlike proposal late last week. Cornyn said he supports “school choice” personally. But the state’s senior U.S. senator lamented intraparty bickering he said might erode the Texas GOP’s majority in the Legislature.
“I’m part of the politics of addition, not subtraction,” Cornyn told reporters after helping distribute turkeys and other staples at an Austin food bank’s monthly distribution. “I think internal fights among Republicans [are] not particularly helpful to our party maintaining its majority status.” Late Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott pointedly excluded the 21 from a list of GOP state representatives he endorsed for reelection.
On Friday, the Texas House stripped education savings accounts, which would use public funds to help families pay for private school, from an extensive school funding bill that also provided teacher pay raises and financial boosts to public campuses. After the 84-63 vote, the House sent the bill back to committee, a seeming death knell for the voucherlike plan in the year’s fourth special session. Within hours of the chamber’s action, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick took to social media to blast the 21 GOP state representatives who voted for College Station Republican Rep. John Raney’s amendment rejecting ESAs. Cruz said the dissident Republicans who “voted today with radical unions over parents and kids” behaved in a “completely shameful” manner.
“Parents in these districts will work vigorously in the primaries to defeat them,” Cruz wrote on X. “School choice advocates are coming for these State Reps.’s seats, and they’re coming HARD.” Patrick, the Senate’s presiding officer and a longtime school choice advocate, said on X he was “stunned” that the 21 House Republicans stripped out the ESAs… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Kamala Harris to visit Houston for Hispanic outreach event (Texas Tribune)
Vice President Kamala Harris is heading to Houston on Monday to tout the Biden administration’s accomplishments for the Latino community, a key voting bloc as the president runs for reelection next year.
Harris will take part in a “community conversation” hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, according to an announcement first shared with The Texas Tribune. It will serve as the latest stop in the caucus’s “On the Road” series of events across the country to get out the word about how Democrats are helping the Hispanic community.
“This is an opportunity for the CHC and the Vice President to talk about all that Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration have delivered for our Latino communities already and the work ahead to lay the groundwork for a brighter future for all Latinos,” the caucus chair, Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., said in a statement.
Barragán will join Harris for the conversation, as will U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston. The event will take place at a health department center in her district, which is one of the most heavily Hispanic congressional districts in the country. Garcia said in a statement that Harris’ visit “emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing the specific needs of the Latino population.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US/WORLD NEWS]
New York City may pay you to build a ‘Granny Flat’ in your backyard (New York Times)
To address the big problem of New York’s housing crisis, the city is trying something small: payments to homeowners to build apartments in their garages and attics.
On Tuesday, officials announced a program that would give 15 owners of single-family homes up to $400,000 each for such projects, which could include building detached units or retrofitting basements.
Recipients will be restricted by income — the ceiling for a family of four will be $232,980, with priority given to lower incomes — and those interested will be able to apply on the city’s website on Tuesday. Rents in the new apartments would also be capped, at around $2,600 for a one-bedroom apartment, for example.
Maria Torres-Springer, the city’s deputy mayor for housing, economic development and work force, acknowledged the effort was modest.
“We hope that it’s just the type of program that builds momentum, shows what’s possible and that demonstrates to New Yorkers how we can build housing in every neighborhood in the city,” she said in an interview.
Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement that the program was a “tangible win for families” and gave working class New Yorkers the “tools they need to thrive in this city.”
Making it easier to build basements, cottages and other extra units has become an attractive way to encourage development in states and cities dealing with high housing costs.
Supporters say the model helps homeowners earn money and can be great for older people trying to find affordable places near their families, which is why the units are often called “granny flats.”
But complicated regulations make them costly to build and maintain in New York City — at least legally, said Howard Slatkin, executive director of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, a nonprofit advocacy group… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Israel and Hamas prepare for fourth swap as mediators seek to extend cease-fire (Associated Press
Israel and Hamas are preparing for a fourth exchange of militant-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, as mediators seek to extend a cease-fire in Gaza that is set to expire after Monday.
On Sunday, Hamas freed 17 more hostages — 14 Israelis and three Thais — in a third exchange under the four-day truce. In turn, Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners.
Of the roughly 240 hostages captured by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that ignited the war, 62 have been released, one was freed by Israeli forces and two were found dead inside Gaza.
Israel has said it would extend the cease-fire by one day for every 10 additional hostages released. Hamas has also said it hopes to extend the truce, which was mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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