BG Reads 7.1.2024

🗞️ Bingham Group Reads - July 1, 2024

July 01, 2024

Bingham Group Reads

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July 1, 2024

Today's BG Reads include:

🟣 After Supreme Court ruling, Austin laws surrounding homelessness are still constitutional (KUT))

🟣 Austin leaders split over Supreme Court camping ban ruling (CBS Austin)

🟣 More than 1K residential units, 2M square feet of industrial may be headed to Taylor (Austin Business Journal)

Read On!

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[CITY OF AUSTIN]

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

After Supreme Court ruling, Austin laws surrounding homelessness are still constitutional (KUT)

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled policies banning behavior related to homelessness in Austin and cities across the country are constitutional.

People experiencing homelessness in Grants Pass, Oregon, challenged city laws banning sleeping and camping outdoors in 2018, arguing they were unconstitutional because the city had neither the housing nor the emergency shelter space to accommodate them. In light of that, criminal prosecution equates to cruel and unusual punishment, they argued.

In a 6-3 ruling, the high court disagreed, siding with the City of Grants Pass. Justices said the city's laws didn't constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The fines aren't cruel, the court said, because they aren't arbitrary — they're given after a warning is issued — and they're not unusual, because cities "have long employed similar punishments for similar offense."

Friday's ruling means that the similar laws in both Austin and Texas as a whole that ban camping and sleeping in public are legally permissible… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin leaders split over Supreme Court camping ban ruling (CBS Austin)

The Supreme Court hands down a decision about the enforcement of public camping bans as the country grapples with a homelessness crisis. At issue in Grants Pass v Johnson is whether enforcing camping bans constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, and in it, justices ruled the city of Grants Pass Oregon can fine people for sleeping in public.

It's the latest development in what has been a five-year battle over public camping in Austin. “I feel firmly that the Supreme Court’s decision related to homeless camping reaffirms the decision that was brought forward by voters in May of 2021,” said District 6 Councilmember Mackenzie Kelly on a Zoom call Friday. She rose to prominence with her stance that public camping was bad for the city.

Kelly was elected to the city council in 2020, the year after the city council overturned an existing camping ban. “While it was well-intentioned, I don’t believe it was executed properly. The city at that time did not have the resources to fully grasp the situation at hand,” she said.

City Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes is an outspoken advocate for people experiencing homelessness in the city of Austin. She said in a statement: “The Supreme Court's decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson is a grave misstep that will lead only to more abuse and dehumanization of our unhoused community."… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Joint Sustainability Committee voices support for climate fee proposal (Austin Monitor)

Members of the city’s Joint Sustainability Committee expressed support Wednesday for a proposal to establish a climate fee to fund green initiatives.

A resolution calling on City Council to pursue a climate fee to help fill funding gaps in the Austin Climate Equity Plan received support from members at the committee’s meeting, but was not voted on because a member left during the meeting, leaving the committee without a quorum.

The resolution does not provide a specific policy proposal for a climate fee, though it states the fee should bring in “predictable revenue” and could be “paid by residents, businesses, corporations, and/or visitors.” 

Rohan Lilauwala, a project manager in the Office of Sustainability, said the status quo of identifying projects and trying to find money to fund them leaves stakeholders unhappy and is less effective. With a climate fee, he said the city can clearly establish how much it can spend on green projects and budget it in a way that makes the process more transparent… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

After lake drownings, safety upgrades come to Rainey Street trailhead (KUT)

More than a year after community members called for better lighting and safety measures along a portion of Lady Bird Lake near Rainey Street, permanent upgrades are finally nearing completion.

The pleas and demands came from family and friends of two men who drowned in the lake last spring near the popular entertainment district, along with others whose family members drowned in the area before 2023.

The Austin City Council pledged to improve safety along a poorly-lit stretch of the trail. Nearly $1 million was dedicated to the efforts, using 2018 bond funding that was earmarked for trail improvements… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

More than 1K residential units, 2M square feet of industrial may be headed to Taylor (Austin Business Journal)

A Dallas-based investment group is eyeing a roughly 330-acre project in Taylor that could bring more than 1,000 residential units and 2 million square feet of industrial space to an area not far from the new Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. factory.

Megatel Austin Taylor LLC — a subsidiary of Megatel Group that has worked on large-scale, primarily residential developments in Texas and Oklahoma — is behind the project planned on the east side of the city, west of Carlos G. Parker Boulevard and north of Highway 79.

The proposal includes plans for for more than 1,000 residential units at the north side of the project consisting of 122 single-family homes of various building types, 786 multifamily units and 153 carriage house apartments. About 21,000 square feet of live-work-play units are also envisioned, allowing a small business owner to operate a tiny shop from their home, according to details shared by Taylor Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis during a June 27 public hearing with the Taylor City Council…(LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas A&M AD declines response to Jim Schlossnagle’s ‘it’s OK to move on’ assertion (Houston Chronicle)

Former Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle said A&M athletic director Trev Alberts told him in the past month, “If you don’t ever feel this is the place for you, that’s OK, and it’s OK to move on,” according to a Schlossnagle interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Schlossnagle left A&M for rival Texas on Tuesday, the day after the Aggies lost 6-5 in the national championship game to Tennessee in Omaha, Neb. Alberts, who is zeroed in on finding Schlossnagle’s replacement, has declined a response to what Schlossnagle told the Star-Telegram. Alberts, hired from the same role at Nebraska in March, typically has not engaged in back-and-forths publicly as an athletic director.

People familiar with the process said Alberts tried reaching out to Schlossnagle on multiple occasions over the past couple of months, but that Schlossnagle exiting A&M for UT appeared to already be in the works in that timeframe. Schlossnagle and UT athletic director Chris Del Conte, one of Schlossnagle’s closest friends, said they did not discuss the Longhorns job opening until after A&M played the national title game against the Volunteers.

Texas announced the dismissal of coach David Pierce earlier that same Monday. Schlossnagle and Del Conte previously worked together at TCU. Early candidates for the A&M opening appear to be former A&M hitting coach Michael Earley, who has joined Schlossnagle in Austin as an assistant, Oklahoma coach Skip Johnson, Alabama coach Rob Vaughn and Wake Forest coach Tom Walter, among others. Johnson and Vaughn are native Texans… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Dallas mayor reassigns council committee chairs (Dallas Morning News)

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced in a memo sent to council members Friday that chairs of two City Council committees would be reassigned. The memo said District 14 council member Paul Ridley will become the new chair of the Quality of Life, Arts and Culture committee, replacing District 7 council member Adam Bazaldua. In the Workforce, Education and Equity committee, Carolyn King Arnold and Jaynie Schultz swapped positions, with Arnold becoming the chair and Schultz becoming vice chair.

“Over the last year, we have united as a City Council to address the basic needs of the people of Dallas and strategically plan for the future of our city,” Johnson wrote in the memo.

“This collective unity has been instrumental in achieving significant progress and improvements for our city’s residents. City council committees play a pivotal role in the effective management of our city and the work that is done by the committees is indispensable in addressing the evolving needs and challenges of a fast-growing city. The people of Dallas have and will continue to benefit from the hard work you put in on your respective committees.”

Bazaldua took to social media to call Johnson a “weak” and “petty” mayor. He said Johnson removed him as chair because of “bully tactics” and said Johnson is throwing a “tantrum.” (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

Biden’s family privately criticizes top advisers and pushes for their ouster at Camp David meeting (Politico)

Members of Joe Biden’s family privately trashed his top campaign advisers at Camp David this weekend, blaming them for the president’s flop in Thursday’s debate and urging Biden to fire or demote people in his political high command.

There is no immediate expectation that Biden will follow through on that advice, according to three people briefed on the family conversations but not directly involved. The three people were granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

Among the family’s complaints about the debate practice: that Biden was not prepared to pivot more to go on the attack; that he was bogged down too much on defending his record rather than outlining a vision for a second term; and that he was over-worked and not well-rested.

The blame was cast widely on staffers, including: Anita Dunn, the senior adviser who frequently has the president’s ear; her husband, Bob Bauer, the president’s attorney who played Trump in rehearsals at Camp David; and Ron Klain, the former chief of staff who ran point on the debate prep and previous cycles’ sessions.

Biden allies and staffers have sought to blame a variety of factors in the aftermath of Biden’s dismal debate performance, including that the president was ill, was over-prepared and that the CNN moderators failed to fact-check former President Donald Trump. But as the crisis continued into a third day, the finger-pointing has turned inward toward some of Biden’s closest advisers… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Trump team plans to pare down Republican Party platform ahead of convention (NPR)

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign is planning to present a “streamlined” platform ahead of the Republican National Convention later this month, according to a memo obtained by NPR.

“The platform is an opportunity to make our vision clear, and to lay out a framework for policy making, while rejecting any special interest influence that seeks to make public policy stray from our clear and straightforward objectives,” stated the memo, signed by Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles.

They said the platform should reflect Trump’s vision for America, and avoid creating lines of attack for his opponents… (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

District 6

District 7 (Open seat)

District 10 (Open seat)

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