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BG Reads 2.27.2024

BG Reads 2.27.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - February 27, 2024

February 27, 2024

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Bingham Group Reads

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February 27, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 Groups sue Austin officials over plan to redevelop dairy plant site

🟣 Greater share of Austin kids heading to private school

🟣 Gov. Greg Abbott signals support for IVF in Texas after Alabama ruling

🟣 Billionaire-backed Koch network halts Nikki Haley campaign funding

Read on!

Click on the BG Logo for this week’s Austin public meeting times and agendas.

[BINGHAM GROUP]

✅ BG Blog - City of Austin org chart red line (as of 2/9/2024)

✅ BG Podcast EP. 239 - On this episode we wrap up the week of February 19, 2024 in Austin politics, and discuss the week ahead.

Topics include:

🟣 The City of Austin cancels $2million review of Austin's homeless strategy

🟣 Austin Council Meeting (2.29.2024) items of note

LISTEN ON: SoundCloud, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Groups sue Austin officials over plan to redevelop dairy plant site (KUT)

Advocacy groups and a neighborhood association are suing City of Austin officials over what they allege is a plan illegally approved by council members to turn a former dairy plant into more than 1,000 new homes, offices and a hotel.

At issue is roughly 21 acres of land along the Colorado River in East Austin. It had long been home to a manufacturing plant run by Borden Dairy, which closed several of its plants throughout the country in 2022. Building rules established by the city restrict anything other than certain industrial uses of the land, such as a dairy plant.

So, when Endeavor Real Estate drafted a plan to build 1,400 apartments, 220 hotel rooms and hundreds of thousands of square feet of offices, shops and restaurants on the tract, it needed to ask permission from council members. The change would also let the developer build taller than typically allowed — up to 120 feet, or 12 stories, instead of 60 feet.

Despite opposition, council members approved the proposal last summer. But in doing so, lawyers representing the Save Our Springs Alliance, People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER) and the River Bluff Neighborhood Association claim city officials granted “special treatment” to the owners of the former dairy plant and the land it sits on… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Urban Transportation Commission learns of roles in mobility restructuring (Austin Monitor)

The city’s many mobility-related offices and departments were recently restructured, and the Urban Transportation Commission got an update earlier this month about how the change is expected to impact the many road projects planned across the area.

Jim Dale, interim deputy director of the Transportation and Public Works Department, spelled out the specialties of the dozens of offices handling areas such as engineering, street design, events management and capital project delivery.

With 3,500 construction permits active across the city on any given day and 8,000 lane miles of roadway across the city, he said the reorganization was judged as necessary... (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Greater share of Austin kids heading to private school (AXIOS Austin)

An increasing share of Austin kids are heading to private school.

Why it matters: The changing school demographics throw into relief the challenges faced by Austin public schools to attract and keep students — and point to a shift in Austin's identity as wealth pours into the city.

Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott is pushing to give some families taxpayer money for private education.

By the numbers: In 2010, 11.1% of Austin students attended private schools.

By 2022, the share was 14.7%, per the latest available U.S. Census Bureau data.

Plus: The number of accredited private schools in Austin has grown from 68 a decade ago to 91 in the latest figures posted by the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission.

There were 29 private schools in Austin 30 years ago, according to the data.

The big picture: Even as Austin public schools have seen a roughly 10% decrease from pre-pandemic enrollment figures, they still educate more than 72,000 kids…(LINK TO FULL STORY)

Bésame Mucho, the Spanish-language music fest coming to Austin, hosts generations of stars (Austin American-Statemsan)

A large chunk of Mexican music history will arrive to town on March 2.

More than 90 Spanish-language — mostly Mexican — music stars will perform at the one-day Bésame Mucho festival at the Circuit of the Americas. The performers will include artists from Ramón Ayala to Belinda.

The Bésame concept began in Los Angeles two years ago. Austin is its first expansion. Tickets for the festival are available online and start at $275.

From four stages — pop, banda, rock and classics (mostly norteño) — festivalgoers will have to rush between sets to catch the tight schedule… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Gov. Greg Abbott signals support for IVF in Texas after Alabama ruling (Texas Tribune)

Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday that he supports Texas families having access to in vitro fertilization treatments and has “no doubt” the state will address issues raised by a recent controversial court ruling out of Alabama. Abbott did not call on the Legislature to take specific action to protect IVF treatment.

“Texas is a pro-life state, and we want to do everything possible that we can to maintain Texas being a pro life state,” Abbott told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday. “But at the very same time … we as a state want to ensure that we promote life, we bring more life into the world and we empower parents to be able to have more children.”

Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under a state law that allows parents to sue for wrongful death of minor children.

“Unborn children are ‘children’,” Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in the ruling, “without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

In leaked audio, Supreme Court Justice John Devine railed against “brainwashed” GOP colleagues (Texas Tribune)

Speaking to a group of East Texas voters in September, state Supreme Court Justice John Devine cast himself as the antidote to his “brainwashed” colleagues on the all-Republican bench.

Their “Big Law” backgrounds, he said, had taught them to worry more about legal procedures — “standing, timeliness, or whatever else” — than their duty to uphold the Constitution.

“At times I feel like they would sacrifice the Republic for the sake of the process,” Devine said in the speech, a recording of which was obtained by The Texas Tribune.

“My concern is that they all bow down to the altar of process rather than to fidelity to the Constitution. And when I say that, it’s not meant to be malice towards my colleagues. I think it’s how they were trained — how they were brainwashed.”

Particularly egregious, he said, was their ruling against Jeff Younger, a former Texas House candidate who had for years waged a public war against his ex-wife over their young child’s gender identity. In 2022, Younger asked the court to stop his ex from moving their child to California, which had recently passed a refuge law shielding parents fleeing from states that restrict gender-transitioning care for minors from prosecution… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US/WORLD NEWS]

Billionaire-backed Koch network halts Nikki Haley campaign funding after South Carolina loss (CNBC)

Americans for Prosperity Action, the network backed by billionaire Charles Koch, is pausing its financial support of GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s campaign a day after she lost to former President Donald Trump in her home-state primary in South Carolina. AFP Action said it still endorses Haley for president but now its support will only come in the form of words — not cash.

“Given the challenges in the primary states ahead, we don’t believe any outside group can make a material difference to widen her path to victory,” AFP Action CEO Emily Seidel wrote in an email to staff, first reported by Politico. “And so while we will continue to endorse her, we will focus our resources where we can make the difference.”

AFP Action declined to provide further comment beyond the staff memo. AFP Action closing its wallet is the next nail in the coffin for the former South Carolina governor who has taken a series of hits since the start of the election year. Along with AFP Action, billionaire Reid Hoffman has also stopped funding Haley’s presidential bid. Despite the setbacks, Haley has pledged to stay in the race through Super Tuesday on March 5. Her campaign said that AFP Action pulling funding has not changed that calculus and that it still has the resources to stay afloat.

“AFP is a great organization and ally in the fight for freedom and conservative government. We thank them for their tremendous help in this race,” Haley’s campaign said in a statement on Sunday. “Our fight continues, and with more than $1 million coming in from grassroots conservatives in just the last 24 hours, we have plenty of fuel to keep going. We have a country to save.” AFP Action will instead channel its resources to finance Republican campaigns on the congressional level. It has so far endorsed five candidates running for Senate and 19 candidates running for House seats… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Hotel staff shortages threaten to push travel costs even higher (Wall Street Journal)

Hotel owners have been on an epic hiring spree. Yet even after clawing back hundreds of thousands of jobs during the past two years, the industry is still light on staff and often struggling to adapt.

Daily housekeeping for all guests, room service and other amenities that were reduced or eliminated during the pandemic are still lacking at many properties.

At the same time, hotels across the U.S. have held their daily room rates near all-time highs this winter, in part to offset the increase in wages to lure workers back. Hotels will collectively pay $123 billion in compensation this year, up more than 20% from 2019, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

Some hotel owners now fret that a guest backlash could be building as smaller staffs can compromise the level of service and higher wages threaten to push the cost of travel even higher.

“If we’re expecting empathy from consumers, we’re not going to get it,” said Bob Habeeb, chief executive officer of Maverick Hotels & Restaurants, which owns about two dozen hotels, mostly in Chicago and the Midwest… (LINK TO FULL STORY)