BG Reads // April 3, 2025

Author

A.J. Bingham
April 03, 2025

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We’re growing BG Reads and want to better understand who’s reading. Your quick answers help us shape content and build a stronger community.

✅ Today's BG Reads include:

🏗️🌆 Mega project in Georgetown could create another downtown (Austin Business Journal)

🏠🤝 What’s going on with the hotels Austin bought to house the homeless? (KXAN)

🦠📊 Texas health experts want a study of the state’s COVID-19 response before the next crisis (Texas Tribune)

💰📈 Trump unveils 10% tariff on all imports and 'reciprocal' tariffs on dozens of nations (NPR)

🚀🏛️ Musk could be headed for a Washington exit after turbulent times at Trump’s DOGE (Associated Press)

[CITY OF AUSTIN]

🏛️ Appointments: Council Member Mike Siegel (District 7) has appointed Adam Powell to the City Austin Planning Commission. Adam, who ran for the open District 7 seat in 2024, also serves as the Executive Director of the Austin History Center Association.

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

✅ Mega project in Georgetown could create another downtown (Austin Business Journal)

A Dallas-based developer is aiming to bring another "Main Street" to fast-growing Georgetown in the form of a high-end, mixed-use project encompassing about 620 acres.

Columnar Investments presented plans to the Georgetown City Council on March 25 for the Heirloom development, which would be located at the northwest intersection of Ronald Reagan Boulevard and County Road 248, across from where H-E-B LP is building a new store.

The project was first brought to the City Council in April 2024, when council members voted to modify the city's future land use map to account for it.

Plans for the site include potentially 3,600 housing units, which would be a mixture of single-family homes, townhomes and apartments alongside 48 acres of parkland.

It would also include at least 200,000 square feet of commercial space centered around a Main Street development that officials want to be similar to what the city has in its downtown square. The Georgetown Independent School District owns about 120 acres that would likely be used for a school site… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ What’s going on with the hotels Austin bought to house the homeless? (KXAN)

Several years ago, the city of Austin purchased several hotels and motels to serve people experiencing homelessness. They spent tens of millions of dollars on the properties and renovations, collectively.

Two of the hotels the city of Austin previously purchased are being used as bridge shelters, which provide a temporary unit for people to get on their feet before being moved to permanent supportive housing or other more permanent housing.

The Northbridge and Southbridge shelters are being used to get people off the street through the city’s Housing-focused Encampment Assistance Link (HEAL) Initiative. Since 2021, the city has moved more than 1,000 people to the bridge shelter through HEAL, the city said in its most recent HEAL release.

Two additional hotels purchased by the city of Austin are now operating as permanent supportive housing. Permanent supportive housing typically targets people exiting homelessness with the greatest need. It provides people with wrap-around services like mental health treatment, case management and peer support… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Austin ISD considering options after principal rescinds resignation at Ann Richards School (CBS News)

A principal’s resignation, that was reportedly rescinded, had hundreds of Austin parents demanding answers on Wednesday. Principal Nicole Griffith is the fifth principal at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders over the past four years.

“Bring her back. We want her back at Ann Richards. Bring her back,” said Kathleen Peschel, the mother of a 10th grader at Ann Richards school.

Parents got an email last week from Austin ISD that said Principal Griffith had resigned. They said they were shocked by the sudden resignation and need more transparency.

At 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Austin ISD sent Ann Richards parents an email update.

"Thank you to everyone who was able to join us last night for a conversation about the leadership at your school. We deeply value the experiences and perspectives of our students, families and staff and are reflecting on what we heard to inform how we will support the ARS community through this difficult time.

Last night we learned that Ms. Griffith rescinded her resignation. Based on this new information, we are assessing next steps. For now, we are postponing the previously scheduled meeting for staff to begin discussing the leadership transition process… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Exclusive look inside Lime’s scooter warehouse and the 1,180 scooters inside (KXAN)

For the first time, Lime Micromobility is opening the doors to its Austin warehouse, giving KXAN an exclusive look inside.

Thirteen full-time staff members are based out of the east Austin warehouse, joining the 1,180 scooters and dozens of e-bikes currently inside.

The warehouse also doubles as an office space, serving as the nerve center for Lime’s operations. The building is staffed 24/7, allowing the company to surge resources toward potential issues.

Those problems can range from broken scooters to vandalized bikes to parking issues flagged by the city.

Micro-transportation remains as popular as ever in Austin. Lime saw an 86% year-over-year increase from March 2024 to March 2025. During South by Southwest specifically, users took more than 139,000 trips, including 2,000 users riding for the first time… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

✅ Texas is giving out $5B in loans to build natural gas power plants. Some companies say no thanks. (Houston Chronicle)

For years, Texas politicians have fretted: What will it take for companies to build more natural gas power plants for the state’s strained power grid? As it turns out, for a growing number of developers, even the Texas government handing out taxpayer-backed loans is not sufficient. Four companies have pulled their projects from consideration from the $5 billion Texas Energy Fund, citing various financial and logistical challenges. Another project was denied loans last fall after one company listed on the application accused the other sponsoring company of fraud. In total, nearly a third of new project capacity advanced to the fund’s due diligence review process has left the program.

State lawmakers created the Texas Energy Fund in 2023 and set aside the bulk of the money to give companies low-interest loans towards building new gas-fired generation for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas power grid. The fund was advertised to voters, who approved the program as a constitutional amendment, as a way to bolster the grid after the February 2021 winter freeze caused statewide outages and killed hundreds. Then, last year, ERCOT forecasted an unprecedented increase in electricity demand in the near future as the state’s population and economy grow. Policymakers became even more adamant that Texas needs much more gas-fired power generation for use when wind or solar power isn’t available, even though natural gas is a fossil fuel contributing to climate change. At first, the Texas Energy Fund seemed popular. So many companies applied for loans that state lawmakers — at the urging of Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — are considering appropriating another $5 billion to the program in the ongoing legislative session, so that it totals $10 billion… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Industry leaders to meet this week to address issues plaguing Texas infrastructure (Austin American-Statesman)

As Texas' industry and economy grow, so too do its infrastructure needs. This week, industry leaders are convening to discuss the state's pressing transportation, energy, water, and digital infrastructure issues.

Infraday Texas is returning to Austin on Wednesday, where industry leaders, lawmakers and engineers will address how Texas' unprecedented growth is impacting the state's infrastructure systems and explore sustainable solutions to these challenges.

Texas recently received a "C" grade on its 2025 infrastructure report card from the nation's premier society of civil engineers. The report rated Texas' overall infrastructure as better than the national average but urged lawmakers to increase investment in water, wastewater and transit systems.

The increasing need for investment in infrastructure across the state comes as Texas experiences exponential population growth and rising resource demands, particularly for water and energy… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Texas health experts want a study of the state’s COVID-19 response before the next crisis (Texas Tribune)

John Hellerstedt, former Texas Department of State Health Services commissioner, said the state needs to make a more significant effort to study its response to the COVID-19 pandemic to better prepare for the next crisis.

Hellerstedt, along with public health advocates and officials in Central Texas gathered Wednesday at the UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in Austin for an event hosted by The Texas Tribune to discuss whether, five years after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the state is better prepared for the next public health crisis.

“We need to look back at the pandemic the way war colleges look at wars, Hellerstedt said. “They look at every aspect of it, not just arms and armament, but leadership and economics and all those measures. And we need to do that with the pandemic if we are going to be prepared for the next inevitable emergency.”

Texas entered the COVID-19 pandemic already at a disadvantage, with an unhealthy and uninsured population, an underfunded public health system, and workforce shortages spread across the health care system… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[US and World News]

✅ Trump unveils 10% tariff on all imports and 'reciprocal' tariffs on dozens of nations (NPR)

President Trump has unveiled sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on goods from the world over, plus a 10% baseline tariff on U.S. imports from all countries, as he seeks to reshape decades of U.S. trade policy despite warnings of higher costs for American businesses and consumers.

The president announced a 10% minimum tariff to apply to goods from all countries. However, certain trading partners will face higher, "reciprocal tariffs" aimed at penalizing them for their trade barriers.

Those taxes on imported goods are calculated on a country-by-country basis, and the levels Trump announced for some trading partners are substantial. He said he plans to impose 34% tariffs on China, 20% on the European Union and 24% on Japan, among an array of other trading partners. Speaking in the Rose Garden on Wednesday at an event unveiling the new policy, Trump cast the new tariffs as payback to a global trade system he feels has been deeply unfair to the U.S.

"For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike," he said. "American steel workers, auto workers, farmers and skilled craftsmen — we have a lot of them here with us today — they really suffered gravely."

The 10% minimum tariffs will go into effect on April 5, and the higher reciprocal rates will go into effect on April 9, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters on Wednesday… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

✅ Musk could be headed for a Washington exit after turbulent times at Trump’s DOGE (Associated Press)

DOGE’s days appear to be numbered.

Elon Musk recently suggested that he will be done with his work in the near future. President Donald Trump told reporters this week that “at some point, he’s going to be going back” to running his companies. As far as the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump said “it will end.”

All of that talk was before Musk faced a setback Tuesday in Wisconsin, where voters rejected his choice for a state Supreme Court candidate despite more than $21 million in personal donations and his campaign appearance over the weekend. There are more problems for the billionaire entrepreneur at Tesla, his electric automaker, which saw a 13% drop in sales in the first three months of the year.

The White House has not disclosed any clear timeline for closing down DOGE, and the government cost-cutting organization was never supposed to become a permanent fixture in Washington. But it could be reaching a conclusion faster than anticipated. DOGE was originally intended to operate until July 4, 2026… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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