BG Reads 12.7.2023

🗞️ BG Reads | News - December 7, 2023

December 07, 2023

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December 7, 2023

In today's BG Reads:

✅ Total eclipse could bring Super Bowl level crowds to Travis County in 2024

✅ New CEO for the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association

✅ Biden says he might not be running if Trump weren’t in the race

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

District 7 (Open seat)

District 10 (Open seat)

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Amendments, memos point to finer steps for implementing HOME initiative (Austin Monitor)

With City Council slated to decide the fate of the HOME initiative today, a last bit of analysis from city staff appears to back the intent and approach of the push to add more housing stock throughout the city.

In a memo released Tuesday, Housing Department Director Rosie Truelove responded to some of the 127 questions submitted by the Council and Mayor Kirk Watson regarding the possible impacts of the HOME initiative. The plan to reconfigure Austin’s single-family zoning rules to relax occupancy limits and promote the construction of more than one housing unit per single-family lot was designed to add supply to the hot housing market, which has seen the median home price climb above $500,000 in recent years.

Truelove offered several conclusions on the “cost of doing nothing” that would take place if the city doesn’t take steps to increase housing stock and, in theory, stem the constant increase in home prices. With detached single-family homes representing 44.8 percent of the city’s housing units, that means much of the city’s homes are far larger and more expensive than duplexes, triplexes and other “missing middle” housing types that HOME, which stands for Home Options for Middle-Income Empowerment, would promote… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Note: Rosie Truelove announced on LinkedIn yesterday that she will be retiring from the City of Austin after 25 years. She will be joining the City of Kyle as Director of Administrative Services in January.

LINKS:

Kevin Fincher named CEO of Austin Regional Manufacturers Association (Austin Business Journal)

One of the region's most-powerful advocacy groups for the growing manufacturing economy in Central Texas has gone within for its new leader.

Kevin Fincher, who for nearly three decades has worked with companies in the sphere as a public accountant, will take over as the CEO of the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association on Jan. 2. Fincher, who is a founding ARMA board member and its current treasurer, succeeds Ed Latson, who left ARMA to take over Opportunity Austin in late October.

Fincher also spent the last seven years as a partner at international firm RSM US LLP.

Tom Hibbs, director of operations at TECO-Westinghouse in Georgetown and the chair-elect of the ARMA board, said it was clear in the interview process that Fincher had "a more comprehensive and strategic view" of where they needed to go and where he wanted to take it. That included topics like how artificial intelligence is going to impact manufacturers and engaging with more educational institutions to build up the workforce… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Note: ARMA is a Bingham Group client.

Austin Chamber CEO calls for revamp to land development code, city's transportation system (Austin Business Journal)

Jeremy Martin is at the helm of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, a major voice for business in what is now the 10th largest city in the U.S.

His days are packed with meetings with elected officials, public sector leaders and Chamber members, and the conversations are often focused on what can be done today to shape Austin's future. That includes honing in on topics that are top of mind for the local economy, including concerns about workforce shortages, housing affordability, transportation and public safety — all of which have been stressed in recent years because of the region's fast-paced growth.

The Chamber, which represents nearly 1,800 businesses, is currently advocating for infrastructure investments such as the Project Connect transit plan, the expansion of I-35 and a bigger Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Martin's team is also supporting revisions to the current land development code, including an effort gaining steam at City Hall called the HOME Initiative that would allow developers to raise three homes on one single-family lot in most parts of the city... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Total eclipse could bring massive crowds in 2024 (Austin Monitor)

Parts of Travis County could double or even triple in population in April 2024 as visitors come here to see the total eclipse of the sun, county officials said Tuesday.

Travis County sits on the eastern edge of the 115-mile-wide viewing path of the eclipse, which will begin just after noon April 8. Western Travis County is well within the path and is expected to attract the most visitors. 

Country music awards and other events are expected to add to the crowds, Blake Clampffer, chief deputy emergency management coordinator, told the Travis County Commissioners Court in a briefing Tuesday. 

“We know there are about 40,000 rooms booked for that time period, which is huge,” he said. “We also know that the Houston metro area of 7 million people will not be in the eclipse path. We know that many people will be coming to or through Travis County to see the eclipse.”

County Judge Andy Brown pushed Clampffer for his best estimate of visitors to Travis County.

“I’ve heard that this will be bigger than the Super Bowl. Is there any way to know what kind of numbers we’re going to be dealing with?” Brown asked. 

“It would be a good guess, an educated guess, but the planning number that other communities have been using is two to three times the population of the community,” Clampffer replied… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Desperate Texas foster kids latch on to adults to escape rental house chaos, lawyers say (Dallas Morning News)

Foster children staying in squalid, state-operated rental homes — sometimes with little to no food — often must fend for themselves, turning to adult strangers for help, witnesses testified Tuesday in federal court in Dallas. Two foster youth recently took charge of their own fates to escape “CWOP houses,” as the rental houses for “children without placements” are called, according to two lawyers who accepted court assignments to represent them. A 17-year-old boy damaged one such house during an emotional outburst and wound up in jail, said attorney Julie Pennington of Austin. Ineligible for bond because he lacked a permanent address, the boy only got out of jail after befriending a guard, who now is adopting him, Pennington said.

Also escaping a state-leased CWOP home in Bell County was a girl who ran away. Soon thereafter the girl, now 16, was flown on a private plane by sex traffickers to Miami, said her lawyer Lindsey Dionne. The girl received more attention from her exploiters than from the Child Protective Services workers pulling a “child watch” shift at the Temple house, Dionne said. The teens are part of a system that’s long been resisting an overhaul of its long-term foster care, said Viola Miller, former child welfare commissioner in Kentucky and Tennessee.

“Number one step is to come clean and say, ‘We’ve got a system that needs to be fixed,’” she said. U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack called this week’s hearing to decide whether to grant a request by lawyers for children that she hold Texas in contempt of court for persistent deficiencies in foster care. Jack previously had ruled that children too often linger for years in unconstitutionally unsafe foster care only to wind up in the criminal justice system or homeless after they turn 18. Kids regularly emerged from foster care in worse shape than when they entered, she found. For the third time in four years, Jack is considering if Texas has slow-walked improvements so much that she must sanction it… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Abbott mum on another special session as he charges into voucher opponents’ primary battles (Texas Tribune)

Gov. Greg Abbott is keeping lawmakers in suspense about whether he will call yet another special session to try to pass school vouchers as he gets more deeply involved in their primaries, making endorsements that are increasingly bold.

Both chambers ended the fourth special session Tuesday still at an impasse over vouchers, or Abbott’s priority proposal to let parents use taxpayer dollars to help pay for private school costs. And in a critical vote last month, 21 Republicans in the House joined Democrats to remove the voucher provision from a broad education bill, delivering Abbott’s yearlong crusade its biggest blow yet.

Now, with the holidays looming — and primary season about to kick into high gear — Abbott is promising to continue the fight for “school choice” but staying mum on whether that means he will call another special session as he has previously threatened. That has raised speculation he could call lawmakers back to Austin next year in the lead-up to the March primary, something Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has already suggested… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Moody Foundation pledges historic, $1 billion commitment to Texas education over the next 20 years (Houston Chronicle)

The Moody Foundation has pledged $1 billion toward Texas education over the next 20 years, one of the largest gifts by a private foundation in state history. Through the foundation's new M-Pact Fund, the organization will distribute approximately $20 million annually to educational institutions and qualified non-profits.

An open request for proposals will help foundation leadership identify recipients in key target areas: early childhood learning and post-secondary education. "Both ends of that barbell are where we can make the most impact," Ross Moody told the Chronicle.

"The idea really came from my sister, daughter and I, three trustees of the foundation, through an extensive search and refresh of our mission statement to build a bigger, brighter future for all Texans. Education has the ability to transform the lives of these kids and the communities where they live."

Since its inception in 1942, the Moody Foundation has pledged and awarded more than $2 billion in grants to statewide organizations. Over the past decade, the foundation has given more than $500 million to education-based organizations and institutions in Texas. Some recent gifts, within the past five years, are included in the M-Pact Fund's $1 billion commitment.

Lawmakers grill the presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn over antisemitism on campus (NPR)In 2019, the Moody Foundation gave $130 million to the University of Texas at Austin to construct a new basketball arena and events venue, which opened in April 2022 and was named the Moody Center. An additional $100 million commitment that year funded Southern Methodist University's Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies. In 2021, the Moody Foundation gave $100 million to Rice University to build a student center and fund student opportunities, the largest single gift toward the student experience in the school’s history, according to Rice University. Part of the gift funds a scholarship for undergraduate business students named for Robert Moody, who died last month. The scholarship provides financial support for internships, competitions, travel and wellness programs… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Biden says he might not be running if Trump weren’t in the race (Washington Post)

President Biden said Tuesday he might not be seeking a second term if former president Donald Trump had not launched his own campaign for the White House. “If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running,” Biden said at a campaign fundraiser in the Boston area. “But we cannot let him win.”

The comments punctuated a stretch that has seen Biden speaking in increasingly stark terms about the threat he says a second Trump term would pose to American democracy. The remarks also come as Biden, who turned 81 last month, has tried to downplay concerns in the Democratic Party about his age. Polls have shown a tight race between Biden and Trump next year, an increasing source of angst for many Democrats. The Biden campaign has downplayed the polls, saying Biden will prevail once voters start focusing on the race in earnest, especially if Trump is the GOP nominee and Americans begin comparing the two nominees directly.

In the meantime, Biden has sought to frame Trump’s candidacy as an existential threat to the country. He has said Trump and what he calls “MAGA Republicans” are seeking to dismantle U.S. democracy and eliminate many of Americans’ fundamental rights. During fundraisers in the Boston area Tuesday, the president warned of the restrictions he said Trump would place on abortion, and he emphasized the former president’s vow to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Biden also again raised the fact that Trump has called his political enemies “vermin,” saying the comments echo the language used in Germany in the 1930s, a time when the Nazis rose to power.

“I’ve been around in politics for a while, and I never thought I’d run in an election like this,” Biden said Tuesday of what is shaping up to be a rematch of the 2020 presidential election. “This time we’re running an election denier-in-chief. Trump’s not even hiding the ball anymore.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Lawmakers grill the presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn over antisemitism on campus (NPR)

The presidents of Harvard, UPenn and MIT testified on Capitol Hill about rising antisemitism on their campuses, an issue that has plagued institutions of higher learning across the country in recent months.

Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel's military response in Gaza have fueled tensions, protests and even violence across the U.S., with reports of both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents surging dramatically since then.

A recent report by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International found that while a majority of Jewish students felt physically and emotionally safe on campus before Oct. 7, those numbers have dropped to 46% and 33%, respectively.

Claudine Gay of Harvard, Elizabeth Magill of Penn and Sally Kornbluth of MIT spoke before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce for several hours on Tuesday, condemning the rise in antisemitic incidents and defending their administrations' responses… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

McDonald’s testing new CosMc’s chain following an unprecedented global expansion (Associated Press)

McDonald’s is testing a new restaurant format with customizable drinks and treats designed to appeal to afternoon snackers — and grab sales from competitors like Starbucks and Dunkin’.

The company said Wednesday it will open 10 CosMc’s restaurants through the first half of next year. One will be near the company’s headquarters in Chicago and the rest will be in Texas. The company will study the results for at least a year before determining whether to expand.

The announcement was one of the most anticipated at McDonald’s day-long investor conference Wednesday. The company also said it expects to open nearly 10,000 McDonald’s restaurants worldwide over the next four years — to reach a total of 50,000 restaurants — a pace of growth that would be unprecedented even for the world’s largest burger chain… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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