BG Reads | News You Need to Know (April 14, 2022)
[FIRM NEWS]
On behalf of the Bingham Group, LLC team and Bingham Group Foundation board, we are pleased today to announce Code2College and E4 Youth as our 2022 grant recipients!
Code2College and E4 Youth, both Austin-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits, will each receive a $10,000 unrestricted grant to further their work. LEARN MORE HERE.
L to R: Matt Stephenson, CEO and Co-Founder of Code2College; A.J. Bingham, Founder and CEO, Bingham Group, LLC / Chair, Bingham Group Foundation; and Carl Settles, Founder and Executive Director of E4 Youth.
Today’s episode (155) features Tina Cannon, CEO, Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce. She and Bingham Group CEO A.J. discussed the recently formed Diversity and Ethnic Chamber Alliance ("DECA")
Comprised of the Austin LGBT Chamber, Greater Austin Asian Chamber, Greater Austin Black Chamber, Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, DECA will facilitate their shared vision to create a Regional Economic Equity Development Plan (“REED Plan”).
The vision of the DECA collaboration is to better the integration of individuals, firms, and communities who have not shared proportionately in the overall rise in local prosperity.
The REED Plan, according to DECA, will reduce barriers and create equity for the small businesses and the workforce communities served by the Chambers.-> EPISODE LINK
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
Council candidates start getting ready for November (Austin Monitor)
Although campaign season has not really begun, candidates have filed paperwork to run for every City Council seat officially up for election in November, as well as those not scheduled to be?on the ballot .
Mayor Steve Adler will have served for eight years when his term expires at the end of December and he does not plan to run again. But at least four candidates have already filed the necessary paperwork to start collecting funds for the race for mayor, a two-year post this time around. They include former?Sen. Kirk Watson ,?Rep. Celia Israel ,?Council Member Kathie Tovo ?and?Jennifer Virden , the Republican who lost in a runoff to Council Member Alison Alter in 2020. Tovo has not made an official announcement, but filed an appointment of campaign treasurer in February indicating a mayoral run. Though Council Member Mackenzie Kelly promoted cosmetics entrepreneur Gary Spellman as a mayoral candidate?on Twitter , there’s been no official filing from him.
In District 1, Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison has?announced for reelection . She will likely have an opponent or two, but so far no one else has filed a treasurer designation.
In District 3, Council Member Pio Renteria is serving his second term, and numerous candidates are expected to join the race to compete for the vacant East Austin seat. Those candidates include José Velásquez, who?has the backing ?of a number of established politicians, including Renteria, County Judge Andy Brown and County Attorney Delia Garza. He also has a long list of small-business owners supporting his candidacy… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin Transit Partnership to recruit new, separate executive director (FOX 7)
CapMetro 's president and CEO Randy Clarke has been serving as the executive director of the partnership since it was formed by the city of?Austin ?and the transit agency as part of Project Connect.
"Project Connect is entering its next phase where more permanent executive leadership to ensure each entity can guide their role in the partnership," said Clarke in a release. "The CapMetro Board and?City Council ?are considering action for me to now serve on the ATP Board and I am honored to serve in such capacity."
The partnership was formed after Austin voters?approved Project Connect in November 2020 ?to expand the city's public transit system. Last fall, the Joint Powers Agreement was approved, which outlined a process for the future transition of leadership for ATP, and the process was due to be completed this month, says CapMetro.
ATP consulted with the Eno Center for Transportation to assess and help the ATP Board determine the proper leadership structure for ATP, as outlined in their March 2022 report, says CapMetro.
ATP will begin the process of selecting a new, separate executive director, which the ATP Board plans to discuss how at their meeting on April 20… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Google announces massive $9.5 billion investment, including Downtown Austin office (KVUE)
Leaders with Google said that the company is preparing to invest $9.5 billion toward offices and data centers across the U.S. In a blog post, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said offices and data centers serve as anchors to local communities and their economies. That’s the reason he said it’s important to continue investing in brick-and-mortar spaces in spite of a transition over the last few years toward remote work.
“We believe it’s more important than ever to invest in our campuses and that doing so will make for better products, a greater quality of life for our employees, and stronger communities,” the post said.
Google will also go after green standard building designs, or otherwise more environmentally friendly ones. Pichai said this is to meet their self-imposed goal of running all of their buildings on carbon-free energy by the year 2030.
Austin is just one of several cities across the country that are set to receive the company’s dollars. Google said they continue to invest in the data center located in Midlothian, Texas, in Ellis County.
Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Colorado and other west coast states are also set to benefit from Google’s new investment… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Trial set for redistricting case that could upend city elections (Austin Monitor)
Plaintiffs who say that they have been disenfranchised by the city’s redistricting process will be watching carefully on May 17, when the suit filed against Austin Mayor Steve Adler and his 10 City Council colleagues is set for trial. Also watching carefully will be prospective Council candidates in districts 2, 4, 6, 7 and 10, which are not currently scheduled for an election this November. Council members in those districts were elected in 2020 for a term that runs through 2024.
Elections are staggered under the city charter. This year, the mayor’s seat and elections for Council districts 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9 will be held in November. If the plaintiffs win this lawsuit, all Council seats will be on the ballot.
Attorney Bill Aleshire, who?filed the suit , expects it will end up in the Texas Supreme Court. But time is of the essence. The lawsuit notes that Council adopted an order on Aug. 9, 2018, calling for an election on Nov. 6, 2018. In 2020, the November election was called on Aug. 13. In a plea for a speedy process, the lawsuit says, “To avoid interference with the November election, and to be fair to all who might wish to be a candidate, judicial resolution of the issues raised in this lawsuit must occur quickly and reach the Texas Supreme Court.”
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As the lawsuit explains, the city charter requires redistricting every 10 years. During the redistricting process, Aleshire said more than 34,000 residents were moved from one district to another. Of that number, he said “22,762 are what I call disenfranchised voters.”… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Austin office rents enter uncharted territory, CBRE reports (Austin Business Journal)
Demand for office space in Austin drove average asking rates to a record high in the first quarter of 2022, according to the latest report from real estate company CBRE Group.
Class A average asking rates were $53.34 per square foot, the first time it’s been above $50 since the company started tracking rates in 1989.
The group said Austin is one of the hottest markets for office development in the country, with 30 projects totaling nearly 6 million square feet currently under construction. They said the bulk of those new spaces are in the Central Business District downtown and east Austin.
Those include huge towers like Sixth and Guadalupe, where the 589,000 square feet of office space has already been?entirely leased ?by Meta Platforms Inc., parent company of Facebook.
But there are huge projects underway in the suburbs as well. Apple Inc. is putting the finishing touches on the first phase of a new campus that could have 12 buildings at full build-out (it owns the land so doesn't have to worry about rent). At The Domain, Stonelake Capital Partners is finishing up Domain Tower 2, the mixed-use community's tallest building at 24 stories, and searching for a tenant. At Domain Northside, Amazon last year?leased all of the Domain 9 tower ?that's still under construction, where it can add 2,000 more employees at what it calls its Austin Tech Hub… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
Biden administration, Mexican governors urge Abbott to end inspections that have bogged down border trade (Texas Tribune)
The Biden administration on Wednesday criticized Gov.?Greg Abbott ’s deputization of state troopers to inspect commercial vehicles crossing the U.S.-Mexico border at selected ports — an initiative that has caused extensive delays and threatens the country’s pandemic-stressed supply chains.
“Governor Abbott’s unnecessary and redundant inspections of trucks transiting ports of entry between Texas and Mexico are causing significant disruptions to the food and automobile supply chains, delaying manufacturing, impacting jobs, and raising prices for families in Texas and across the country,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a?statement .
Psaki’s statement comes as Abbott is slated to have a meeting and press event with Samuel Alejandro García Sepúlveda — the Mexican governor of Nuevo León, the state that includes a section of the border near Laredo — later Wednesday afternoon.
García said Tuesday that he had come to an agreement with Abbott that the governor would lift his extra level of inspections as long as no immigration violations occurred,?according to KGNS-TV .
But an agreement with García’s state alone would provide little relief.
The Laredo-Colombia Solidarity International Bridge is the only commercial border crossing between Texas and Nuevo León. Other Mexican border states, such as Tamaulipas south of the Rio Grande Valley, Coahuila south of Del Rio and Eagle Pass, and Chihuahua south of El Paso, have many more commercial crossings with Texas… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Commerce secretary warns Texas faces 'disproportionate' risk as computer chip supplies slow (Houston Chronicle)
Texas and its large technology and defense sectors face particular risk as global supplies for computer chips become increasingly tight, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Monday. The Biden administration is making a public push for Republicans and Democrats in Congress to come together on legislation that would pump more than $50 billion into expanding U.S. manufacturing of computer chips, also known as semiconductors, as global demand rises and manufacturers struggle to lock down supplies. "All states would be impacted but Texas would be disproportionately effected (if the legislation doesn't pass)," Raimondo said. "You have a number of defense contractors in Texas that are utterly dependent on chips... You have the tech industry around Austin, Houston and Dallas. And you have a number of companies in the chip industry."
On Friday, Republicans and Democrats announced they had agreed to set up a conference committee to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the United States Innovation and Competition Act, in which Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, have emerged as leaders. A sprawling piece of legislation designed to spur innovation across the U.S.economy, the bill would give the Commerce Department $52 billion to expand domestic chip manufacturing. A recent survey by the Commerce Department found that U.S. chip inventories had fallen almost 90 percent over the past two years, as demand rises globally. "Chip companies are going to have to expand. The question is do they do it in the U.S. or in Europe or Asia," Raimondo said. "If congress doesn't move now, were going to lose out forever." Democrats and Republicans have largely come to agreement on the funding for chip manufacturing. But other components of the legislation are driving discord… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
CDC extends transportation mask mandate until May 3 (KUT)
The Biden administration is extending its face mask requirement for public transit for another 15 days. That means travelers will still need to mask up in airports, planes, buses, trains and at transit hubs until May 3.
The mask travel requirement had been set to expire this coming Monday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is keeping in place?its mask order ?"in order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity," according to an agency spokesperson.
The spokesperson also confirmed that the Transportation Security Administration, which?handles enforcement? of the order, is extending its security directive and emergency amendment for another 15 days.
The decision was made in response to the increasing spread of the omicron subvariant in the U.S. and an increase in the 7-day moving average of cases, which have risen by around 25% over the last two weeks nationally. Certain states are seeing?much larger increases ?in new cases.
The CDC is following the science with this latest decision, says?James Hodge , who directs the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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//The Bingham Group