BG Reads | News You Need to Know (July 24, 2023)
[BG PODCAST]
EPISODE 207 // Bingham Group Associates Hannah Garcia and Wendy Rodriguez review the week in Austin politics and more.
The discussion covers:
• City Council returned from Summer break for a regular meeting on July 20th, 2023 → services.austintexas.gov/edims/docume…fm?id=411224
• City of Austin Staff released expedited timeline for housing code amendments → www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/0…de-amendments/
• Texas has increased funding for school meals allowing more AustinISD Students will eat free breakfast → www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/0…-school-meals/
• The proposal to reorganize Equity, and Civil Rights offices drawing criticism from community members. Interim City Manager Jesus Garza explained motivations for changes → www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/0…ights-offices/
• Council voted to formalize $200 minimum pay for musicians at city events at their Thursday meeting → www.austinmonitor.com/stories/2023/0…t-city-events/
Also check out our previous podcast covering the release of The City of Austin FY23-24 Budget → The-bingham-group-llc – Ep206
>>> SHOW LINK <<<
Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
[AUSTIN METRO]
Council approves taller buildings in part of Sixth Street entertainment district (Austin Monitor)
City Council has approved an increase in building height for a portion of the East Sixth Street entertainment district that has been targeted for redevelopment by a Dallas-based real estate firm.
The ordinance amendment approved Thursday after a public hearing will allow buildings on the 500 and 600 blocks of East Sixth Street – the stretch between Neches and Sabine streets – to reach a maximum of 140 feet in height, or whatever the limits of state Capitol View Corridor laws will allow.
The increase from the long-standing 45-foot height limit in the largely historic entertainment district will allow Stream Realty to move forward with plans to erect an office building and a boutique hotel on a handful of the roughly 40 properties the company has acquired over the past five years… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin ISD considers adding 70 police officers to comply with new Texas school safety laW (KUT)
The Austin Independent School District is considering nearly doubling the size of its police department to comply with a new state law that takes effect Sept. 1.
House Bill 3 is a piece of sweeping school safety legislation that Texas lawmakers passed this year in response to the Uvalde school shooting. HB 3 requires school districts to have at least one armed security officer on each campus during regular school hours. Districts can meet the requirement in several ways, such as hiring school police officers or partnering with local law enforcement agencies to assign personnel to campuses.
The Austin ISD police department has about 80 officers currently. Typically two officers are assigned to each high school campus and one is assigned to each middle school. But it will take dozens of additional officers to staff the district’s 78 elementary schools… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Inside the heated—and increasingly maddening—battle for Zilker Park (Texas Monthly)
Though it’s hard to imagine today, there was a time, not so long ago, when it was not uncommon to find Zilker Park’s Great Lawn almost entirely devoid of people. But after more than a decade of nonstop population growth in Austin, the bright green savanna at the heart of the city more often resembles New York’s Central Park on a spring day. With its daily assortment of picnickers, dog walkers, sand volleyball teams, slackline walkers, and dubstepping fire twirlers, the park is one of the last spaces where the city still feels communal and, on occasion, a little weird. But the influx of park-goers has brought with it a certain carelessness, one that strikes at the core of the park’s historic, conservation-oriented spirit. On particularly busy days, it’s not uncommon to see vehicles parked illegally on top of century-old tree roots. Trash bins overflow with pizza boxes and White Claw cans, and, in areas frequented by dog walkers, the lawn is often strewn with hardened chunks of feces. The rock island at the center of the park used to be a quiet place to climb and contemplate. Now it’s the preferred backdrop for aspiring social media influencers to hawk CBD oils, set up turntables, and lead large-scale workout classes.
A visitor to the park may, at any time, find themselves an unwitting extra in someone’s personal branding campaign as drones buzz overhead, filming the theatrics for Instagram. A few hundred yards away, trash-filled homeless camps have begun appearing beside pristine springs that are home to the city’s federally endangered salamanders. Just down the hill in Barton Creek, where no more than a handful of canoes used to lazily drift, motorized boats ferry binge-drinking bros through the water, flouting local law with their speakers on blast. Often, they’re surrounded by a selfie-snapping flotilla of paddleboarders, kayakers, tourists, and revelers whose presence is gradually destroying the shoreline, experts say, hastening erosion that is killing trees and funneling pollutants into the waterway. Each October, during Austin City Limits Music Festival, 450,000 attendees pummel the park for two weekends in a row. The festival’s stages are now so large and heavy that they’ve compacted the park’s soil, killing trees. Together with the Trail of Lights, another multimillion-dollar revenue generator, large portions of the park are closed to the public for nearly three months each year. Even without a new generation of visitors—so many of whom treat the park as an outdoor extension of the city’s new nonstop party culture—Zilker would be overdue for an epic facelift… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
New rules for addressing City Council ‘postponed indefinitely’ (Austin monitor)
At the beginning of Thursday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Kirk Watson announced that a plan to cut back on public input had been “postponed indefinitely.”
Many speakers criticized rules originally proposed by City Clerk Myrna Rios, and they expressed hope that such restrictions would not come back at any time.
Drawing particular condemnation: a plan to prevent speakers from donating their time to others for a coordinated explanation of different groups’ positions… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Endeavor gains OK to erect tallest buildings in far East Austin (Austin Business Journal)
Endeavor Real Estate Group LLC's plan to transform an East Austin dairy plant into a multi-tower, mixed-use development has taken a significant step forward, with July 20 rezoning approval from Austin City Council.
The redevelopment is proposed on 21 acres currently occupied by a Borden Dairy Co. facility on Levander Loop, overlooking the Colorado River. Endeavor aims to create a bustling mixed-use district with 1,400 residential units, more than 400,000 square feet of office space, more than 100,000 square feet of retail space and a 220-room hotel near Cesar Chavez Street, East Seventh Street and U.S. Route 183.
With a new maximum building height of 120 feet, the planned towers could rise 10 to 12 stories — taller than any other building in a largely residential and industrial area… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS]
‘Operation Lone Star 2.0’: Abbott’s harsh new border tactics are upending a small Texas city (Houston Chronicle)
Shelby Park is a vital piece of this small border city, a place where locals flock to play soccer, hold riverside picnics and launch boats into the Rio Grande. But in recent weeks, the 47-acre public expanse has been transformed under Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security operation into something more reminiscent of a war zone. Rusted shipping containers and mounds of sharp razor wire block the riverbank, which is lined with “no trespassing” signs. Swaths of vegetation have been razed and a channel in the river that connects to a small island has been filled in with dirt. Armed guards and military vehicles patrol the shoreline as a looping audio message plays over loudspeakers, warning migrants to stay in Mexico. The site has become an epicenter for the state’s controversial new border tactics, including arresting migrants on public property, forcing small children and families downriver and withholding water from some even in extreme temperatures.
The escalation, part of Abbott’s two-year, $9.5-billion Operation Lone Star, drew fresh condemnation last week over disturbing accounts from a Department of Public Safety trooper and reports of “inhumane” treatment of migrants, including young children. It has further inflamed tensions with federal officials who say Texas is obstructing Border Patrol agents and endangering lives. “This whole situation, I want to make clear: We didn’t ask for this,” said Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas. “I feel we’re in the middle right now of a fight between the federal government, the state government, with DPS and it’s terrible. It weighs on me so much, on the community.” Since June, troopers have arrested hundreds of migrants for trespassing in the park under an agreement that says the land belongs to Salinas, not taxpayers. While the state has charged migrants with trespassing on private ranches in the past, these mark the first on public land. In an interview, Salinas said the county attorney and officials with the Department of Public Safety asked him to sign a document declaring that he owned the park. “It was presented to me as a matter — like an emergency matter,” Salinas said, adding that he had mixed feelings about it: “I don’t want thousands of people coming across without consequence.” The state has arrested so many migrants in the park, in a neighboring municipal golf course and on adjacent ranches that the county jail is overflowing… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Justice Department to sue Texas over Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border security program (Texas Public Radio)
The Justice Department has notified the State of Texas that it will file a lawsuit over Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott's controversial border security initiative. Texas Public Radio confirmed on Friday that the Justice Department sent a letter to Abbott's office outlining that the suit would encompass reports of civil and human rights abuses of migrants at the border and the overstepping of state authority into the federal jurisdiction of border security and control. There was also concern that Texas is violating the national sovereignty of Mexico and U.S. treaties with Mexico. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 in order to stop illegal migration through the Texas border, claiming the Biden administration was not doing enough.
It started with the deployment of thousands of Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers and Texas National Guard members to arrest migrants on state trespassing charges. The Republican governor has since tested the legal limits of a state's ability to enforce immigration policy. The $4 billion program has since been escalated to include high-speed pursuits and the installation of miles of razor wire and other obstacles along the Rio Grande. Most recently, Abbott has installed a floating buoy barrier in the middle of the of the river. Abbott and the state are also facing criticism for an email from a DPS trooper and medic that claims troopers were ordered to push migrants they encounter into the Rio Grande and deny them water in the middle of a heat wave. Abbott denies the allegations. Eighty-six House Democrats sent a letter to the Biden administration on Friday urging intervention… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Paxton lawyers seek to disqualify 3 Democratic senators as impeachment jurors (Texas tribune)
Lawyers for suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton are pushing to disqualify three Democratic state senators as jurors in his upcoming impeachment trial.
Paxton’s lawyers filed a motion Friday that asks Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to disqualify Sens. Nathan Johnson of Dallas, Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio and José Menéndez of San Antonio, arguing they have a proven bias against Paxton.
“Like numerous courts around the country, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has held for almost a century that potential jurors with a bias or prejudice against the accused are disqualified from serving on his jury as a matter of law,” the motion said. “Jurors José Menendez, Roland Gutierrez, and Nathan Johnson have such a bias and have proclaimed it loudly, time and again.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[NATION]
Turning unused office space into housing could solve 2 problems, but it's tricky (NPR)
City centers are struggling to fill the gap left by commuters who now come into the office a few days a week, if at all. These workers were patrons of downtown businesses, from restaurants to dry cleaners. Without them, offices are desolate and businesses are shuttering.
To save these downtowns, cities are trying to turn unused office space into housing. San Francisco officials are making efforts to adjust current building codes and get rid of extra fees for office-to-residential projects. In Washington, D.C., the mayor wants to put more money into a tax relief program for office conversions… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
U.S. and North Korea Start Talking About American Soldier Who Crossed the Border (Wall Street Journal)
The United Nations Command has begun talking with North Korea about an American soldier who crossed the border from South Korea without authorization last week, the deputy commander said Monday.
British Army Lieutenant General Andrew Harrison told a briefing on Monday that conversations have begun through a communication line established under the armistice agreement that ended combat in the 1950-53 Korean War.
Private 2nd Class Travis King, 23 years old, has been detained in North Korea since he crossed the border while on a tour last Tuesday of the Joint Security Area, part of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas... (LINK TO FULL STORY)