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- BG Reads 2.18.2025
BG Reads 2.18.2025
🟪 BG Reads - February 18, 2025
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February 18, 2025
✅ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Council approves call for better coordination, planning among downtown projects (Austin Monitor)
🟪 Austin-area residential and commercial builders worry about potential impact of steel tariffs (KVUE)
🟪 Austin leads the country in new affordable housing construction, study finds (KUT)
🟪 Texas tech sector stagnant, Fed reports (Austin Business Journal)
🟪 Social Security head steps down over DOGE access of recipient information, AP sources say (Associated Press)
Read On!
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
✅ Council approves call for better coordination, planning among downtown projects (Austin Monitor)
The city hopes to bring coordination to the many high-profile projects taking over downtown Austin in the coming years, with the city manager charged with determining the budgetary and planning resources needed throughout the district.
On Thursday, City Council approved the Downtown Austin Strategic Initiative, a comprehensive plan aimed at coordinating strategies targeting mobility, infrastructure, arts, culture, economic development, public safety, homelessness and green spaces in the city’s core.
The initiative, introduced by Council Member Zo Qadri, calls for a strategy that aligns various downtown projects with existing city plans while ensuring stakeholders remain engaged throughout the process.
The effort seeks to address several key areas, including the development of a management structure to oversee and coordinate major downtown projects.
City officials are particularly focused on mobility and infrastructure improvements such as the Interstate 35 cap-and-stitch project, Project Connect, the Austin Convention Center expansion and the Austin Core Transportation Plan. Those initiatives, which include East Sixth Street improvements and Waterloo Greenway expansions, are expected to reshape downtown over the coming years… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Austin-area residential and commercial builders worry about potential impact of steel tariffs (KVUE)
After President Donald Trump reinstated a 25% tariff on steel imports and increased tariffs on aluminum imports, residents and commercial builders are worried about the impact. Trump said the move will strengthen the steel and aluminum industries in the U.S. While the tariffs have not gone into effect, the President of Transformations Custom Build, Lakshmi Jackman, said she's starting to see the impact.
Jackman offered a bit of advice for any homeowners wanting to keep construction costs down.
"Make your decisions as quickly as possible. Make as many decisions as you can ahead of the game, we can order these products. We can come prepared. That helps in all sorts of areas," Jackman said. "We're doing everything that we can every single day. And when you throw this into the mix, it is a whole other dimension."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ ACC, Concordia University team up to streamline student success with 'Rise and Shine' initiative (KVUE)
A new transfer program will expand the options available for Austin Community College (ACC) students. The "Rise at ACC, Shine at CTX" initiative offers ACC students multiple pathways to a bachelor's degree at Concordia University Texas.
It's the latest partnership for ACC after it announced last year that ACC students would be able to transfer to Texas State University automatically.
Students taking part in the transfer initiative will receive personalized support from application to graduation. The support will include one-on-one academic advising, financial aid counseling and assistance to navigate Concordia's resources and campus life… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Austin leads the country in new affordable housing construction, study finds (KUT)
A new study shows relief is in sight for renters in Austin: The city led the country in affordable housing construction in 2024. The study from real estate analysis firm Yardi Matrix found Austin built 4,600 affordable units last year, and the city is projected to build more units than any other city over the next few years.
These homes are intended for people making 60% of the median-family income in Austin, which is roughly $76,000 a year for a family of four. Doug Ressler with Yardi Matrix says Austin's moves to build denser housing has led to a boom in market-rate apartments, as well as developments that offer affordable housing.
Even though Austin's real estate market cooled somewhat over the last few years, he said, it's still a "hot market" for multifamily housing of all stripes… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Round Rock approves updated landscaping guidelines (Community Impact)
New developments in Round Rock will follow updated guidelines for landscaping following City Council's vote in favor of city ordinance changes at its meeting Feb. 13.
The ordinance update aims to enforce water conservation efforts by the city and will affect both residential and nonresidential developments.
"We're just making a few tweaks here and there to help further our reputation as a water wise community," Director of Planning and Development Services Bradley Dushkin said at a Feb. 11 agenda packet briefing... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ Austin not likely to get WNBA team anytime soon, sources say (Austin Business Journal)
Austin's chances of scoring a Women's National Basketball Association team sooner rather than later have dimmed. The WNBA is preparing to award Cleveland its 16th franchise, multiple sources have told Sports Business Journal, with an approximate bid worth a league record $250M.
The sources put Cleveland’s expansion chances as high as 90% —with an announcement expected no later than March —and said the WNBA has re-thought its original plan of adding just one team and could award one or two more franchises to bring its league total to 18 clubs.
The presumed leaders for the second and third teams are Philadelphia, Houston, Nashville, Detroit and Miami, with the league reiterating tonight that nothing is finalized… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
✅ Texas tech sector stagnant, Fed reports (Austin Business Journal)
Texas’ economy remains strong but slowed more than economists expected in 2024, experts with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said in a 2025 Texas Economic Outlook presentation. The report found Texas’ 2024 job growth ended up being 1.7% lower than the forecast figures, with contributing factors including higher interest rates, lowering oil and gas prices as well as election uncertainties. The state’s energy, financial services and construction industries dominated as the fastest growing job sectors, according to the report. Energy jobs grew 5.5%, financial services roles increased 5.1% and construction job growth rose 3.1%. 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
✅ How a South Texas community college embraced apprenticeships to ease a growing nursing shortage (Texas Tribune)
Every Wednesday, the students from South Texas College clock into their shift at the largest hospital in town. Donning light blue scrubs and compression socks, they practice checking vitals on a mannequin.
The worried family members, the medical codes on the machines — it all feels new to many of the students. But when they’re ready to take the vitals of real patients, veteran nurses will be in the room, guiding them. The 18 students are getting hands-on training at one of the first nursing apprenticeship programs in the country. Many of them will be the first in their family to graduate from college.
Apprenticeships make it possible for Texas nursing students to make money right away instead of waiting years until they complete a degree. That could be appealing to adults who are impatient to start earning and wary of taking on loan debt.
In their two years at South Texas College, apprentices will have to complete 2,000 clinical hours on top of their classroom work. They’ll squeeze in time during Christmas and Thanksgiving. The hospital, DHR Health, pays apprentices $14 an hour for their clinicals.
Traditional nursing students spend a fraction of their time in a hospital and are not paid for their clinical hours. Both tracks take about 2 years to complete… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
✅ Social Security head steps down over DOGE access of recipient information, AP sources say (Associated Press)
The Social Security Administration‘s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests to access Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Acting Commissioner Michelle King’s departure from the agency over the weekend — after more than 30 years of service — was initiated after King refused to provide DOGE staffers at the SSA with access to sensitive information, the people said Monday.
The White House has replaced her as acting commissioner with Leland Dudek, who currently works at the SSA, the people said.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields released a statement Monday night saying: “President Trump has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner.”
✅ Investors haven’t been this pessimistic about stocks since 2023 (Wall Street Journal)
Bearishness among individual investors—measured by the percentage who expect stock prices to fall over the next six months—reached 47.3% for the week ended Feb. 12, according to the latest survey from the American Association of Individual Investors. That is the highest level since November 2023.
The unabashed bullishness that marked much of the past two years has been muddied by trade-war threats, regulatory upheaval, stubborn inflation and the dwindling expectations for additional interest-rate cuts.
The S&P 500 climbed 23% in 2024, led by a handful of stocks that touched sky-high valuations as the year progressed. And while investors haven’t totally soured on the market, the constant flurry of headlines has left some less confident in where stocks head from here. Rising pessimism isn’t always a bad sign. Indeed, some investors use the survey as a contrarian indicator, selling when bullish sentiment touches highs and buying when bearishness jumps.
“The mood is confused. They don’t know which policies are going to stick and which ones aren’t,” said Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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