#NEWS // BG Reads | May 23, 2023

[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]

Zilker Park Vision Plan clears Austin Parks Board (KXAN)

The?Zilker Park Vision Plan?is one step closer to being adopted after clearing the Austin Parks Board Monday night. It wasn’t without pushback from the public.

At least 160 people signed up to speak to the board — many against the vision plan. Additional speakers signed up in-person and online late in the day. Public comment took four hours and went late into the night Monday.

“Seventy percent of this plan is for totally unneeded new construction that only a few people are looking for,” one speaker said.

The vision plan is a guide, but doesn’t outline detailed design, construction plans or budgeting for the future of the park. The plan will head to Austin City Council this summer, according to city staff.

The plan includes three new parking garages, a land bridge over Barton Springs Road — connecting Barton Springs and Zilker Park — a “welcome plaza” and new hike and bike trails…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)

Public Safety Commission, APD reach a detente (Austin Monitor)

The Public Safety Commission and the Austin Police Department are recovering from a?tense meeting?earlier this month, at which APD leadership threatened to no longer attend commission meetings and commissioners lamented APD’s unresponsiveness, revealing a widening chasm.?

That’s why APD leadership’s appearance before the Public Safety Commission was noteworthy during a special called meeting May 15, given the last meeting, at which APD Chief Joseph Chacon raised concerns about a lack of decorum.

Past and present commissioners told the Austin Monitor that APD has chafed in recent years – often dodging questions and data requests – as the commission’s membership has evolved from largely deferential to law enforcement to more adversarial…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)

Faith leaders join in fight for more transparency regarding Austin police-DPS partnership (Austin American-Statesman)

Members of Austin’s faith community, and many other residents leaned on Austin city officials Monday as they called upon its leaders for greater transparency and accountability with the city’s partnership with the Texas Department of Public Safety.?

The partnership, which began March 30, has been highly criticized?after data revealed nearly 9 of 10 arrested by the task force are people of color. While the program has been paused to allow DPS troopers to help at the Texas-Mexico border, it is expected to resume.?

The Rev. Daryl Horton, pastor at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in East Austin, said?the faith community was just as concerned as everyone else about the issues with public safety, and pushed for more communication and transparency with the public.?

“I don't have to tell you that perception becomes reality when people look at their experiences and how they feel they're being treated and see?how actions are being taken in their area,” Horton said. “So, I think to help communities feel safer... we just want to encourage a?way to get a greater communication out to the public to allow them to understand the reason that DPS is present."…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)

As wait times for transformers climb to 70 weeks, housing developments are struggling to turn the lights on (Austin Monitor)

As American manufacturers struggle to keep pace with demand, wait times for power transformers have put housing and infrastructure projects across the country on hold.

Austin Energy executives joined City Council’s Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee last week to discuss the?nationwide shortage, reporting that new units are now taking nearly 70 weeks to arrive. Interim General Manager Stuart Reilly says the utility is taking a number of approaches to tackle the crisis, including expanding its vendor contracts outside the United States and relaxing equipment specification standards…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)

Whisper Valley park to eclipse Zilker Park in size (Austin Business Journal)

A private developer plans to fund and construct a 600-acre public park in east Austin that will one day be donated to the city of Austin and its park system.

Douglas Gilliland, the managing director for Taurus Investment Holdings, describes the park as the “Zilker Park of east Austin.” The new public park will almost double the size of Zilker, will be sandwiched between Walter E. Long park and the East Metropolitan park, and will tie in to Travis County’s 14-mile public trail system.

The park will be near Taurus' new?Whisper Valley?neighborhood, which will ultimately yield more than 7,500 homes and apartments. Our partners at KXAN News have more on the proposed park, including its timeline and an aerial rendering,?here…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS NEWS]

Texas bill would preserve UT-Austin’s admissions policies if U.S. Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action (Texas Tribune)

As university leaders around the country wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether it will overrule affirmative action, the Texas Legislature has passed a bill that would ensure the University of Texas at Austin would not have to completely change how it selects its freshman classes.

Public universities in Texas are required to automatically accept every student who graduates from high school in the top 10% of their class. But UT-Austin is an exception: Right now, state law requires that 75% of UT-Austin’s freshman class must be automatically admitted if they graduated from a Texas public high school in the top 6% of their class.

The 75% cap was put in place over a decade ago to allow the university to admit students outside of the automatic admissions policy. The university accepts a quarter of every freshman class through a holistic review process that considers a student’s grades, personal essays, extracurriculars, race and other factors…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas bans ‘Marxist’ diversity offices at state universities, following Florida (The Hill)

The Texas legislature has passed a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs at state universities.

The?bill?now heads to the desk of Gov.?Greg Abbott?(R).

The measure — the second?of its kind?passed by any state,?after Florida — is one that critics say could hamstring flagship state institutions like the University of Texas and Texas A&M. They also warn it could chase minority students from state universities and devastate smaller schools.

The bill obligates the governors of each state university to ensure that their institution has no diversity, equity and inclusion office, and gives no preference for diversity hires…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)

[NATIONAL NEWS]

Shareholder Activists Drag Companies Into U.S. Culture Wars (Wall Street Journal)

A backlash against companies taking on issues ranging from climate change to abortion rights is helping to push shareholder proposals to record numbers this year.

More advocacy groups are using these?resolutions?to try to inject their voices into the corporate agenda, questioning companies’ adoption of policies that some view as being overly political. One group, for example, put forward a resolution requesting that?Eli Lilly?report on the risks of supporting abortion. Last year, the drugmaker expressed its opposition to Indiana’s near-comprehensive abortion ban.

Such proposals questioning companies’ stances on social and environmental issues have come in record numbers, surging to 74 for annual meetings held before May 31, up from 43 last year, according to data from ISS Corporate Solutions, a unit of proxy-advisory firm ISS.

“The incredible dissension in the political arena is spilling over into the capital markets,” said Heidi Welsh, executive director of the Sustainable Investments Institute, a U.S.-based nonprofit that says it provides nonpartisan analysis of sustainability issues. “Companies are getting dragged into partisan fights that they don’t want to be in, but they can’t avoid it anymore.”…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)

TikTok sues Montana over its new law banning the app (NPR)

TikTok?has filed a federal lawsuit?against Montana after the state?passed?a law last week intended to ban the app from being downloaded within its borders.

The widely expected lawsuit argues that banning a hugely popular social media app amounts to an illegal suppression of free speech tantamount to censorship.

The Montana law "unlawfully abridges one of the core freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment," the suit claims…?(LINK TO FULL STORY)

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