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- BG Reads 5.7.2024
BG Reads 5.7.2024
🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - May 7, 2024
Bingham Group Reads
Presented by:
4.17.24 // Bingham Group celebrates 7 years in business!
May 7, 2024
Today's BG Reads include:
🟣 TC Broadnax outlines priorities as new City Manager of Austin (City of Austin)
🟣 City of Austin has roughly $30M in ARPA funding left to be allocated, documents show (KXAN)
🟣 Austin will tear down its convention center. What happens next? (Austin Monthly)
Read On!
[BINGHAM GROUP]
The first and second memos are reviews of Mr. Broadnax's time as city manager of Dallas and Tacoma, respectively. The information was pulled from news articles from the time. We've provided links where appropriate.
The last is a review of the seven city of Dallas budget's Mr. Broadnax spearheaded. This was compiled through review of publicly available budget documents.
BG Memo Link - Contact me for general questions or comments. If there are specific business/policy concerns, we’re happy to schedule time to consult -> [email protected].
On this episode we welcome back Jack Craver, independent reporter and founder of The Austin Politics Newsletter. Jack and Bingham Group CEO A.J. Bingham discuss the candidate field for the 2024 Austin Mayoral elections, including incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson.
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
TC Broadnax Outlines Priorities as New City Manager of Austin (City of Austin)
As TC Broadnax begins his new role as Austin’s City Manager, his first priorities include addressing several key issues, primarily the hiring of a permanent police chief and working to ensure the finalization of a new contract agreement between the Austin Police Association and the City of Austin.Other key priorities include emergency preparedness, affordable housing and addressing homelessness.
“Together, we will address these and other challenges with collaborative, transparent, inclusive, and equitable approaches,” Broadnax said. “As the City continues its rapid growth, we must grow in our unique roles as devoted City employees, boldly responding to challenges with creativity and compassion.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
City of Austin has roughly $30M in ARPA funding left to be allocated, documents show (KXAN)
Conversations are happening now at the City of Austin about what happens when more than $188.5 million in federal pandemic relief funding runs out. More than half of that money is going toward addressing homelessness.
“[That] included the investment in permanent supportive housing, we’re gonna see over 400 new permanent supportive housing units come online by the end of the year. It also included some strategic investment in rapid rehousing,” Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said.
The roughly 30 programs the City of Austin said it would use that money for include rapid rehousing, funding homelessness service providers, affordable childcare and access to food.
Of the roughly $188.5 million the City of Austin got in that ARPA funding to do it, Austin has spent more than $105 million of it — roughly 55% — according to an annual expenditures report the city was required to submit to the federal government last week. KXAN received it through the Texas Public Information Act.
But the report also shows a significant amount of that money has been allocated already, though it may not be technically spent yet. In all, that document shows there’s about $30 million left to be allocated… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin will tear down its convention center. What happens next? (Austin Monthly)
By this time next year, the Austin Convention Center will be a pile of rubble. Eventually, a new building more than double its size will rise on the same site, but that project isn’t expected to be completed until 2029.
There’s a convincing case for the $1.6 billion rebuild: Back when the multipurpose facility was constructed in the early 1990s, Austin was the 27th largest city in the U.S. Now, it has swelled massively and ranks 10th, but the convention center is just the 59th largest in the country. As with our airport, highways, housing, public transit, and schools, Austin has simply grown too fast to comfortably fit in our old infrastructure digs.
Though it will endure nearly half a decade of lost revenue while out of commission, the new space expects to create an additional $285 million in economic impact each year and support around 1,600 new jobs. In fact, city officials say they’re already booking events for 2030 and 2031 in the renovated space. Plus, the promise of a shiny new facility allows them to court a list of dream clients. In the same way that the Moody Center became a game changer for attracting the biggest names in entertainment, the revamped complex could entice exciting new business—the classic “if you build it, they will come” argument… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Council pushes for ‘agrihood’ pilot program merging homes with farmland in East Austin (Austin Monitor)
The city will target part of Northeast Austin as an area that could see more small farms mixed with affordable homes, in a nod to the “agrihood” movement to bring homes closer to agriculture.
Last week, City Council approved a resolution sponsored by Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison that directs the city manager to take a number of actions related to promoting agrihoods in portions of District 1.
The resolution calls for identifying any obstacles for agrihood development, along with finding best practices to support them. A pilot program proposed for the new Northeast Planning District could serve as the test case for how to best create and sustain agrihoods, with the city also exploring any zoning needs and state or federal aid that could assist in the effort.
The resolution, which was unanimously supported, was forecast by a recommendation approved at last month’s Housing and Planning Committee meeting, where Harper-Madison and proponents of the movement discussed the benefits of easily accessible fresh food in a parts of city where full-service grocery stores aren’t readily available… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
TxDOT looking to spend $740B over next 25 years. But first the agency will ask what Texans think (Houston Chronicle)
It is an overused and oft-abused phrase that millions of Texans are sick of hearing, but when it comes to Texas transportation, everything is bigger – and growing. Just how much it might grow over the next quarter century is something today’s Texans are about to have a say in. Texas Department of Transportation's proposed long-range transportation plan, called Connecting Texas 2050 and updated every four years, opens for public comment on May 10 and closes June 9. A public hearing is scheduled for May 28. Texas has more miles of road than any other state – 701,000 miles. That’s 1.5 times the next road-laden state, California. Simply maintaining the 201,000 miles managed by the TxDOT is nearing an annual cost of $2 billion.
Collectively, Texans drive an estimated 540 million miles per day, something TxDOT notes is “enough to circle the earth nearly 100 times every minute.” Now, add more people who want to go to more places and try to plan out 25 years. The numbers get big, very big. As TxDOT works on its long-range plan, taking into account construction, maintenance and development of transportation projects, the total cost estimated from 2025 to 2046 could reach $740 billion. That figure is more than the gross domestic product of Belgium, simply so Texans can drive, fly, bike, walk, float or ride around.
To put that some other ways, over the next quarter century, Texas could spend enough on transportation to: Fund the Space Shuttle program three times over. Not the Space Shuttle, but the entire 30-year Space Shuttle program – research, construction, launches, commemorative pins, etc. Then it would still have money left over for three B-2 stealth bomber programs. Buy almost half the state – 14 million people – this model white Toyota Tundra 4X4 crew cab with a 6.5-foot bed. Sail for 23.2 million years aboard the Mariner of the Seas in an ocean view cabin, based on current November prices for a five-day stay from Galveston to the Caribbean. Where, and on what, that money gets spent is likely to be a long-simmering discussion for politicians, planners and advocates, but it will start with a public component this month... (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS]
In a high-stakes test, Boeing will launch NASA astronauts to space for the first time (NBC News)
After years of delays, Boeing is finally set to launch two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on its Starliner spacecraft. The capsule is scheduled to lift off Monday at 10:34 p.m. ET, atop an Atlas V rocket at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams will pilot the Starliner on its inaugural crewed flight — a crucial final test before NASA can authorize Boeing to conduct routine flights to and from the space station for the agency.
The stakes are high. This will be Boeing’s first launch with humans aboard its spaceship, and it comes after years of delays, technical setbacks and significant budget overruns. If successful, the flight will enable Boeing to challenge the dominance held by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has been ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the orbiting outpost since 2020.
Both companies’ spacecraft were developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which was established after its space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011. The goal: incentivize and help fund the creation of new, commercially built vehicles capable of flying to and from low-Earth orbit. At a preflight briefing last week, Wilmore said safety is paramount and that previous Starliner launch attempts — both uncrewed and crewed — were delayed because the capsule simply was not ready until now.
“Why do we think it’s as safe as possible? We wouldn’t be standing here if we didn’t,” Wilmore told reporters. Still, there are inherent risks with any new spacecraft or rocket. “Do we expect it to go perfectly? This is the first human flight of the spacecraft,” Wilmore said. “I’m sure we’ll find things out. That’s why we do this. This is a test flight.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[2024 Austin City Council Race Watch]
This fall will see elections for the following Council Districts 2, 4, 6, 7, 10, and Mayor.
Declared candidates so far are:
Mayor
District 2
District 4
Jade Lovera
d
District 6
District 7 (Open seat)
District 10 (Open seat)
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