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- BG Reads 11.6.2023
BG Reads 11.6.2023
🗞️ BG Reads | News - November 6, 2023
November 6, 2023
In today's BG Reads:
âś… American Airlines cutting 20+ destinations from Austin
âś… Turning empty offices into apartments is getting even harder
âś… Texas voters to decide whether to put billions toward gas power plants
Read on!
[BINGHAM GROUP]
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Texas plans to move forward with I-35 expansion despite Austin's call for slowdown (Austin Business Journal)
The Texas Department of Transportation is maintaining its plan to begin work on an expanded I-35 through Central Austin despite a push from City Hall to postpone the project. With construction on the I-35 Capital Express Central project set to begin in mid-2024, the state agency shared no indication that it would pause or delay its work on the $4.5 billion infrastructure improvement plan in response to an Oct. 19 decision by the Austin City Council to call for a postponement of the project. “This is a long overdue project designed with the community and for the community,” stated TxDOT Austin District Engineer Tucker Ferguson, in an Oct. 19 memo shared with the Austin Business Journal on Oct. 30.
The expansion – one of the city’s largest planned infrastructure projects set for the coming decade – would expand and lower a portion of the highway through the city center to slow the rate of traffic growth and accommodate more vehicles. I-35, built in the 1960s, is one of the main north-south arteries in the region and is often gridlocked during rush hour. The larger project, known as the I-35 Capital Express program, would bring improvements to one of the most congested highways in the state that serves as a critical freight corridor for the nation’s economy, Ferguson said. The project now stands in the final phases of design and review in preparation for construction to begin next year. Work has already begun on expansions to the highway both north and south of downtown.
City Council’s recent resolution, which marks the most comprehensive resistance to the highway expansion plan, has been met with opposition by key leaders of Austin’s business community who say an expansion is long overdue… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Panelists debate potential housing supply impacts from HOME initiative (Austin Monitor)
Advocates for more housing options in Austin see hope in recently passed changes in city land use policy intended to increase density, but still hope for more progress in increasing the overall supply of housing available for middle- and lower-income residents. Last week’s A Home for Everyone panel discussion brought together leaders from a variety of stakeholder groups to discuss the impacts of the Home Options for Middle-Income Empowerment (HOME) initiative, which was approved by City Council in July.
The two main impacts of that resolution are a reduction in the city’s minimum lot size to construct smaller housing units, and automatically allowing three housing units per lot to reduce the time and expense to add more units to an existing home.
Among the panelists was Selena Xie, president of the Austin EMS Association, who said housing insecurity caused by high costs impacts her organization’s members’ ability to find housing as well as the health of patients needing emergency care… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
American Airlines plans to significantly cut the number of destinations it directly serves from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. (Austin Business Journal)
American Airlines Group Inc. (Nasdaq: AAL), ABIA's second-busiest passenger airline, recently submitted scheduling changes that indicate the Fort Worth-based airline plans to cut 21 of the 46 destinations that are currently offered from Austin in the coming year, according to data collected by Cirium Diio, an airline and airport scheduling service, and shared by the travel news website One Mile At Time.
Cuts were confirmed by officials at the airline and airport. It comes on the heels of other Austin airport losses, such as the Virgin Atlantic's recent announcement that it will soon halt nonstops to London from Austin.
Here are all of American's planned cuts in service and when the flights are scheduled to cease. It's important to note that other airlines still offer direct service to many of these locations:
Albuquerque International Sunport, Feb. 2024
Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Jan. 2024
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Jan. 2024
Cozumel International Airport, Jan. 2024
Eagle County Regional Airport (Colorado), Feb. 2024
El Paso International Airport, Feb. 2024
Dulles International Airport, Feb. 2024
Jacksonville International Airport, Jan. 2024
Daniel Oduber QuirĂłs International Airport (Costa Rica), April 2024
Sangster International Airport (Jamaica), 2024
Kansas City International Airport, Feb. 2024
Memphis International Airport, Jan. 2024
Lynden Pindling International Airport (Bahamas), March 2024
Will Rogers World Airport (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), Feb. 2024
Punta Cana International Airport (Dominican Republic), March 2024
Licenciado Gustavo DĂaz Ordaz International Airport (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico), April 2024
Southwest Florida International Airport, Feb. 2024
Sacramento International Airport, Feb. 2024
Tampa International Airport, Feb. 2024
Tulsa International Airport, 2024
Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport, 2024
[TEXAS NEWS]
Texas voters to decide whether to put billions toward gas power plants (The Hill)
This Election Day, Texas voters will decide whether or not to open up billions of dollars to support natural gas power plants.
Proponents of the measure tout it as a way to improve the state’s electric grid — which infamously failed in a massive winter storm in February 2021, leading to the deaths of 246 people, or more than 750 according to one investigation.
“After Winter Storm Uri, it was clear for all to see that Texas needed more reliable, dispatchable power because renewable energy sources failed to keep the lights on for millions of Texans,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) said in a statement earlier this year.
Opponents argue that it’s a taxpayer giveaway to the polluting fossil fuel industry, and they raise doubts about whether it will actually improve reliability.
The measure, known as Proposition 7 or “Prop 7” creates the “Texas Energy Fund.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Appeals court considers whether Texas teens should be allowed contraception without parental consent under federal program (Texas Tribune)
For almost a year, Texas teens have been shut out of a federal program that allows minors to access birth control without parental consent.
On Monday, a federal appeals court will review the court ruling that upended the longstanding Title X program, and decide whether to restore one of the only ways Texas teens can access confidential contraception.
The case was filed by former Texas solicitor general and conservative firebrand Jonathan Mitchell, on behalf of Alexander Deanda, an Amarillo-area father raising his daughters “in accordance with Christian teaching on matters of sexuality.”
Deanda does not allege that his daughters accessed the Title X program or were prescribed birth control without his consent, but rather that the existence of the program violates his rights as a parent… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
State Rep. Craig Goldman announces bid to replace Kay Granger in Congress (Dallas Morning News)
State Rep. Craig Goldman on Friday announced his bid to replace retiring incumbent Kay Granger in Congress. In a news release launching his candidacy, Goldman, a Republican, said his campaign will focus on securing the nation’s southern border with Mexico. “I will be a conservative fighter who will prioritize border security and the American taxpayer,” Goldman said, adding that he has a “proven record of passing bold, conservative legislation.” “Here in Texas we are doing our job, but the Biden Administration is working against us at every turn,” he added. “That must change, and I’m ready to fight for that change.” On Wednesday, Granger, 80, the powerful chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, announced her retirement from the 12th District after nearly three decades in Congress.
In 1996, Granger, was the first Republican woman elected to the U.S. House from Texas. She leads the committee that controls trillions of dollars in spending. Her absence leaves a void in North Texas public service, one which Goldman says he can fill. Goldman, 55, a businessman who works in real estate, is chairman of the Texas House Republican Caucus and is a top lieutenant of House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont. On Friday, he touted his work as chairman of the House Energy Resources Committee, where he says he helped strengthen the state’s oil and gas industry.
He also mentioned his effort to better track sexual assaults and his help in the Legislature approving the largest property tax decrease in Texas history. Goldman was also author of approved legislation signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott that would allow prosecutors to pursue murder charges in fentanyl deaths. “I’m incredibly honored and humbled by the number of people who have urged me to run,” he said. The Fort Worth-anchored district represented by Granger is a GOP stronghold, and in recent years, Granger has beat back challenges from the hard-right of the party…(LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US/WORLD NEWS]
Blinken shuttles from West Bank to Iraq trying to contain the fallout from Israel-Hamas war (Politico)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken took his diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, trying to assure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the Biden administration was intensifying efforts to ease the plight of Gaza’s civilians and insisting that Palestinians must have a main say in whatever comes next for the territory after the conflict.
Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as American forces in the region face a surge of attacks by Iranian-allied militias in Iraq and elsewhere. U.S. forces shot down another one-way attack drone Sunday that was targeting American and coalition troops near their base in neighboring Syria, a U.S. official said.
President Joe Biden’s top diplomat traveled through the West Bank city of Ramallah in an armored motorcade and under tight security. It was his third day of shuttle diplomacy aimed at trying to limit the destabilizing regional fallout from the war and overcome what has been Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to consider a U.S. proposal for intermittent pauses in its attack on Hamas long enough to rush vital aid to Gaza’s civilians… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Turning empty offices into apartments is getting even harder (Wall Street Journal)
Cities hoping to convert emptying office buildings into apartments are running into financing issues, stagnating rental markets and other challenges that are bottling up their efforts.
Developers last year created just 3,575 apartment units in the U.S. through office conversions, according to an analysis by rental listing site RentCafe. That amounts to less than 1% of all apartments built that year through new construction.
The number of office conversions is poised to increase sharply this year, according to brokerage
CBRE, as office vacancies keep rising and developers see conversions to other property types as an alternative… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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