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- BG Reads 11.28.2023
BG Reads 11.28.2023
đď¸ BG Reads | News - November 28, 2023
November 28, 2023
In today's BG Reads:
â City of Austin, plaintiffs at odds over court order on development rules
â Demography map shows 90,000 new housing units wasnât enough for Austinâs growth
â Food banks are under pressure from Texasâ high level of food insecurity
More stories below. Read on!
[BG
[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 canât 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]
City, plaintiffs at odds over court order on development rules (Austin Monitor)
After the city of Austin lost a lawsuit that claimed City Council had violated the law in approving three ordinances designed to make it easier to develop housing, Judge Jessica Mangrum told the two sides to draw up an order reflecting her decisions, including any fines the city would be required to pay as a result of violating a previous order. According to the ruling, the city violated laws requiring notice to individual property owners when a zoning change is proposed.
The overturned ordinances are Vertical Mixed-Use 2, Residential in Commercial, and Compatibility on Corridors, all of which were designed to make it easier to build housing on corridors and in commercial buildings. A fourth challenged ordinance, called Affordability Unlocked, remains because plaintiffs did not challenge it soon enough, according to state law.
However, attorneys for the plaintiffs, including Francisca AcuĂąa and Fred Lewis, have presented to the judge an order thatâs radically different from the one provided by City Attorney Anne Morgan. The orders appeared in The Austin Bulldog on Monday, and Lewis confirmed that they were correct⌠(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin, Greystar officially execute agreement to redevelop vacant St. John site (Austin Business Journal)
The St. John site is officially under a master development agreement contract between the city of Austin and Greystar Development Central LLC, according to an announcement from Austin's Economic Development Department.
The master development agreement, or MDA, partnership, which is in collaboration with the city's Housing Authority, aims to redevelop the 19-acre, city-owned site into a âvibrant mixed-use, mixed-income community, featuring open spaces and commercial services tailored to enhance the St. John neighborhood,â the announcement stated⌠(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Demography map shows 90,000 new housing units wasnât enough for Austinâs growth (Austin Monitor)
A new interactive map released by the Planning Department shows some of the ways Austinâs housing supply has changed dramatically over the course of a decade in which the city has become one of the most popular destinations in the U.S.
The city Demography Divisionâs Demography Story Map reflects how even though Austin added 90,000 housing units from 2010 to 2020, surrounding communities outpaced the cityâs rate of housing growth. The shift meant that over the course of the last decade, the cityâs share of housing in the five-county region accounted for less than half the total, or 47 percent of all housing⌠(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Tesla to deliver first Cybertrucks this week at Giga Texas in Austin (Austin American-Statesman)
Austin-based Tesla is expected to roll out the first of its long-anticipated Cybertrucks this Thursday during an event at its Central Texas facility.
The futuristic all-electric pickup will mark the first truck for Tesla, which moved its headquarters to its Austin facility in 2021. The facility already produces Model Y SUV's and batteries.
Here's what we know about the vehicle and event⌠(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:
â The HOME Initiative and What is the public outreach standard?
â 2024 Austin Council Race watch and more
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
[TEXAS NEWS]
Food banks are under pressure from Texasâ high level of food insecurity (Texas Tribune)
In recent months, the Central Texas Food Bank, which covers 21 counties, has fed 400,000 families, which is equal to the peak number served during the spring and summer of 2020.
A study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 15.5% of Texas households lack consistent access to food that is both healthy and affordable, meaning they fit the definition of being food insecure. Texas has the second highest rate of food insecurity in the nation, and food banks are warning that the challenges could soon get worse.
Food pantries, positioned as they are at the frontlines of providing food assistance, are the first to see increasing levels of hunger. But federal food assistance programs are the largest resource available.
Today, about 3.3 million Texans receive federal food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP and more older Texans are now receiving monthly SNAP assistance⌠(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Deal for new Texas A&M coach heavy on incentives for postseason success (CBS Sports)
The Mike Elko era is underway in College Station after Texas A&M hired the now-former Duke coach and ex-Aggies defensive coordinator Monday as its replacement for Jimbo Fisher, who was fired earlier in November in his sixth season guiding the program. And after Texas A&M awarded Fisher a mammoth contract -- 10 years at $75 million on the initial deal back in 2017 -- that ended with the school owing Fisher more than $77 million in buyout money, the Aggies are taking a bit of a different approach to the terms of Elko's deal.
Shortly after the introductory press conference got underway on Monday, the terms of Elko's contract with Texas A&M were revealed. The deal is for six years at $42 million in total value, which boils down to Elko having an annual salary of $7 million. The buyout on his contract is set at flat percentage, which increases at the halfway point of the deal, and there are also plenty of incentives featured. The basic terms for the Aggies' new headman are outlined below⌠(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US/WORLD NEWS]
Israel and Hamas extend their truce, but it seems only a matter of time before the war resumes (Associated Press)
A truce between Israel and Hamas entered its fifth day on Tuesday, with the militant group promising to release more civilian hostages to delay the expected resumption of the war and Israel under growing pressure to spare Palestinian civilians when the fighting resumes.
The sides agreed to extend their truce through Wednesday, with another two planned exchanges of militant-held hostages for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But Israel has repeatedly vowed to resume the war with âfull forceâ to destroy Hamas once itâs clear that no more hostages will be freed under the current agreementâs terms.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit the region later this week for the third time since the start of the war, and is expected to press for an extension of the truce and the release of more hostages⌠(LINK TO FULL STORY)
Supreme Court to consider âquadrillion-dollar questionâ in major tax case (The Hill
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in early December on a case that has the potential to broadly reshape the U.S. tax code and cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.
At issue in Moore v. United States is the question of whether the federal government can tax certain types of âunrealizedâ gains, which are property like stocks or bonds that people own but from which they havenât directly recouped the value, so they donât have direct access to the money that the property is worth.
Large portions of the U.S. tax code require that income be ârealizedâ before it can be taxed, but critics say itâs an inherently wishy-washy concept that courts have just been ignoring for years due to administrative impracticalities.
Even if the court limits the scope of its decision to the specific tax referenced in the case, known as the mandatory repatriation tax, a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs could cost $340 billion over the next decade, according to the Justice Department... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Advertising is dead. Long live advertising. (Wall Street Journal)
Not long ago, the advertising business was headed toward pariah status. Ad-free streaming services like Netflix were booming and ad blockers for the web were thriving. It seemed like people were ready to tune out ads completely.
âThe way we know advertising today is dead,â warned
Mastercard Chief Marketing Officer Raja Rajamannar during the ad industryâs annual festival in Cannes, France in 2019.
Citing ad blockers and consumers migrating to ad-free environments, he urged fellow marketers to find new ways to reach consumers. âItâs imperative that we need to have alternative ways of showing up and generating brand awareness.â
What a difference a few years make.
Virtually every major streamer, from Netflix to Disney has launched a service tier that includes ads. They are joined by an exhaustive list of corporationsâmany of whom are far afield from mediaâthat are plotting or have started ad-sales businesses.
United Airlines is the latest company to consider expanding its ad business by using passenger information to help brands serve targeted ads to its customers, The Wall Street Journal reported last week⌠(LINK TO FULL STORY)
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