BG Reads 12.8.2023

🗞️ BG Reads | News - December 8, 2023

December 08, 2023

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December 8, 2023

In today's BG Reads:

✅ HOME initiative passes City Council

✅ Audit shows changes needed at Development Services Department

✅ 2 Austin companies picked by US defense agency for lunar moonshots

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]

Austin to allow more homes on one plot of land in the pursuit of cheaper housing (KUT)

In an attempt to encourage the construction of middle-class housing, Austin voted Thursday to amend land use rules to let property owners build more homes in neighborhoods restricted to one family living in one house on one plot of land.

Council members voted 9-2 in favor of the changes, which will allow developers to construct up to three homes where previously only one or two were permitted. Council members also nixed limits on unrelated adults living together and loosened restrictions against tiny homes — all part of a slew of changes coined HOME, or Home Options for Middle-Income Empowerment.

“I think we can celebrate this moment and the achievement tonight as we create more housing opportunities across the city," said Council Member Leslie Pool, who represents parts of North Austin and whose office brought the measure forward.

Council Members Alison Alter and Mackenzie Kelly voted against.

Thursday’s vote is part of an increasingly common strategy in Austin by politicians, builders and affordable housing advocates to target zoning rules, which restrict what can be built and where, as a way to lower the cost of housing… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Audit shows changes needed at Development Services Department (Austin Monitor)

Nearly a decade after a damning evaluation of the city’s planning and development processes resulted in more than 460 recommended changes, a recent audit of two smaller components of the Development Services Department found some steps left incomplete from a pair of more recent reviews.

On Wednesday, the Audit and Finance Committee of City Council heard the results of the audit, which was a follow-up to a 2017 review of the demolition permitting process and a 2019 audit of the city’s permitting process. The draft audit found that four of the six recommendations included in those two documents had been completed.

One of the two incomplete changes is that DSD does not ensure demolition permits are issued with all needed reviews, safety measures and notifications. The audit noted that issues remain in the notification process for demolition permitting. The second incomplete change is the lack of a coalition agreement with Austin Energy, which is seen as essential for ensuring coordination between the two organizations… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

2 Austin companies picked by US defense agency for lunar moonshots (Austin Business Journal)

Firefly Aerospace already has big plans to head to the moon with its Blue Ghost lunar lander. Now it appears the Cedar Park-based company will be working on establishing a framework for a spacecraft hub that would orbit the moon and provide on-demand services, such as refueling, delivery and de-orbiting.  

Firefly announced Dec. 5 that it was selected to support the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) capability study for its Elytra vehicle. The research and design for the project will help prove how an orbiting docking system would work.

DARPA's program, which includes 13 other companies, aims to develop an integrated commercial lunar infrastructure, including shareable, scalable systems that could be commercially available on and around the moon by 2035. The agency operates under the U.S. Department of Defense.

Among the 14 companies selected for the project is Austin-based 3D printing startup Icon. Like Firefly, Icon is also working on a variety of NASA lunar projects, including a $60M contract for Project Olympus, which calls for the development of space-based construction systems for the moon and beyond… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

With the Mavericks, Miriam Adelson is poised to be Texas political powerhouse. Will it help her legalize casinos? (Texas Tribune)

The Adelson family confirmed late last month they were selling $2 billion in Las Vegas Sands stock to buy a majority stake in the Mavericks from Cuban, who is expected to retain control of basketball operations. The family hopes to close the deal by the end of the year.

Miriam Adelson wasted little time reaching out to the state’s business leaders since news of the deal broke, visiting Austin on Thursday to address the Texas Association of Business, the state’s largest business lobby. While she largely spoke about Israel and its war against Hamas, she wove in a reference to the highly anticipated deal.

“Look closer and you’ll find that Israelis and Texans have a deep affinity,” she said. “It runs deeper than business, though commercial ties between Texas and Israel are truly booming. And it even runs deeper than basketball, though my family are huge fans of the Dallas Mavericks.”

Adelson has not commented on what the sale could mean for the future of gaming in Texas, but Cuban has said the prospect of a “future resort casino” played a role in his decision to sell... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Turner’s attempt to amend billion-dollar airport contracts met with criticisms from Whitmire, Pappas (Houston Chronicle)

Amid pointed criticisms from mayoral hopeful state Sen. John Whitmire, outgoing Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration is seeking City Council approval to amend four lucrative airport concession agreements that would limit the ability of future administrations to terminate the current contracts. The four 10-year contracts, collectively worth over $1 billion, cover a wide array of food, beverage and retail services at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport and William P. Hobby Airport.

Among them is a particularly contentious deal, approved earlier this year after three separate rounds of bidding, that ousted Pappas Restaurants from Hobby Airport, where it had previously operated for two decades.

Right now, the Houston Airport System's director, a mayor-appointed position, holds the power to end any of these contracts as he sees fit. Under the proposed amendment, the city would need to obtain City Council approval to withdraw from these agreements without cause. On Wednesday, Councilman Michael Kubosh tagged the proposal to postpone the vote for a week. He said he needed more time to review it because the administration is “changing the way things happen.” The Turner administration said the proposed change is meant to ensure reliable operations and uninterrupted services within the airport system.

“Given the significant investments made by concessionaires and the importance of stable continued airport operations, it is recommended that greater oversight be exercised when a decision to terminate is contemplated,” the administration said in a note on the council agenda… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Judge blocks Dallas from banning short-term rental properties in single-family areas (Dallas Morning News)

A Dallas County judge says Dallas can’t start enforcing new regulations that would ban short-term rental properties from single-family zoned areas because they infringe on property owners’ rights and are an example of government overreach. District Court Judge Monica Purdy on Wednesday signed a temporary injunction order saying a group of STR operators suing the city over the new rules had proven that they would likely prevail on their assertions that the new city regulations are unconstitutional.

“Unless the city is enjoined from enforcing the STR ordinances, there is a substantial risk of probable, imminent and irreparable injuries to plaintiffs because plaintiffs, and the vast majority of other STR owners in Dallas, will immediately lose the ability to lease their property for less than 30 days,” Purdy’s order said.

The city planned to start enforcing the zoning change Dec. 13, the order said. The judge set a non-jury trial for June 3, 2024, for the ongoing lawsuit. The nonprofit Dallas Short-Term Rental Alliance and four operators, who list their properties on platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo, sued the city on Oct. 2 arguing the new regulations were unconstitutional and alleged other violations, including that they illegally discriminate against STR owners and operators. City attorneys asking Purdy to deny the temporary injunction request said blocking the new rules would stop Dallas from “advancing its legitimate and compelling governmental interests.”

“Plaintiffs freely admit that their STRs are businesses that they operate in residentially-zoned neighborhoods,” the city’s response said. “But plaintiffs are not just operating such businesses out of their homes — the homes are the businesses.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Psychologists say they can't meet the growing demand for mental health care (NPR)

For the third consecutive year, many psychologists across the country say they are seeing patients struggle with worsening symptoms, many of them needing longer treatment times. Those are among the findings of an annual survey by the American Psychological Association, released this week. The APA first launched this survey in 2020 to gauge the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on practicing psychologists. A majority of psychologists reported that more people are seeking mental health care this year, adding to already long waitlists. Over half (56%) said they had no openings for new patients. Among those who keep waitlists, average wait times were three months or longer and nearly 40% said that their waitlist had grown in the past year.

"We continue to see incredibly high demand for mental health services and an incredibly limited supply," says psychologist Vaile Wright, senior director of Health Care Innovation at the APA. "This is not a sustainable solution to addressing the mental health crisis in this country."

The survey also found that more people are seeking help for certain kinds of mental health issues, especially anxiety disorders, depression, and trauma and stress related disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep disturbances and addiction. Over half of psychologists said the length of time patients need treatment had increased. These are all lingering mental health impacts of the pandemic, explains Wright. "I think there are a variety of ways that individuals experienced trauma during the pandemic," she says. "It could be the loss of a loved one and the grief that comes along with that. It could be one's own sickness and the impact of hospitalizations."

The changes to people's personal lives brought about by pandemic-era public health measures, including changes to one's social life, jobs, and altered ability to care for loved ones, also added a lot of stress on people, she adds… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Trump’s vow to only be a dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric (Associated Press)

As Donald Trump faces growing scrutiny over his increasingly authoritarian and violent rhetoric, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave his longtime friend a chance to assure the American people that he wouldn’t abuse power or seek retribution if he wins a second term.

But instead of offering a perfunctory answer brushing off the warnings, Trump stoked the fire.

“Except for day one,” the GOP front-runner said Tuesday night before a live audience in Davenport, Iowa. “I want to close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.”

Trump has a long history of making inflammatory proclamations that spark outrage from detractors and generate a stream of headlines, without ever coming to fruition. Often they are made in a tongue-in-cheek manner that allows Trump’s allies to claim he was joking and cite the backlash as another example of a candidate skilled at baiting an out-of-touch press that takes him far too literally.

Trump campaign aides said Thursday that the former president was simply trying to trigger the left and the media with his dictator comment, while also seeking to focus attention on the influx of migrants at the border and stubborn inflation, two vulnerabilities for President Joe Biden heading into the 2024 general election… (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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