#NEWS // BG Reads | March 15, 2023

[AUSTIN METRO]

Cruise to begin testing Origin robotaxis in Austin in coming weeks (Tech Crunch)

Cruise, the self-driving unit under GM, is rolling out its custom-built Origin robotaxi on Austin’s public streets in the next several weeks, CEO Kyle Vogt said while onstage at SXSW.

The Origin vehicles won’t be accessible to the public — at least for a while. For now, Cruise will be testing the Origins on public roads in Austin. But Cruise said the vehicles will be open to customers in a “matter of months.”

The first Origin vehicles are already rolling off the production line at GM’s Factory Zero in Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan.

Last September, Cruise announced plans to launch commercial robotaxi services in Austin, Texas, and Phoenix — two hot spots for autonomous vehicle development — before the end of 2022. Those services, using Chevy Bolt vehicles, started with employees and “friends and family” at the end of the year. Cruise wouldn’t share the exact size of its fleet. There are about 300 in the global fleet, most of which are in San Francisco. Dozens are in Austin.

Commercial services are expected to open to the public later this year.

The Cruise Origin, the product of a multiyear collaboration with parent company GM and investor Honda that is designed for a ride-sharing service, was first unveiled in January 2020.

The shuttle-like vehicle — branded with Cruise’s trademark orange and black colors — has no steering wheel or pedals and is designed to travel at highway speeds. The interior is roomy, with seats that face each other, similar to what a traveler might find on some trains… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Note: Cruise is a Bingham Group client.

Council approves rule to allow more use of small lots (Austin Monitor)

In 2016, City Council voted to close a loophole that allowed houses to be built on smaller lots than intended when the Land Development Code was adopted.

At the time, some North Austin neighbors were complaining that they had been fooled into agreeing to small-lot amnesty. They did not anticipate that developers would “exploit this loophole” to increase housing and in turn increase the risk of flooding and parking issues, according to Clay Crenshaw in the Northfield neighborhood.

Now, seven years later, another resident of North Austin – Brian Bedrosian, vice president of the North Loop Neighborhood Association – says neighbors are beginning to see the wisdom of allowing what is called “disaggregation” of small lots. Bedrosian told Council on Thursday that his neighborhood had voted unanimously to support one neighbor who went before the Board of Adjustment to win approval for building on their small lot.

Following Council’s direction Thursday, staff will come up with wording to repeal the section of the LDC that prevents the disaggregation of small lots, allowing houses to be built on smaller lots… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas Legislature could derail Austin's transit expansion (KUT)

Austin’s slowly shrinking vision for a fast-moving urban rail system by the end of the decade is about to face a new challenge, one that could upend the voter-approved transit expansion: property tax warriors in the Texas Legislature.

New bills challenging the Austin Transit Partnership's (ATP) powers to borrow money come as the organization is about to unveil a set of scaled-back light-rail options that fit within the original $7.1 billion Project Connect budget.

Rail opponents are seizing on the moment, accusing Austin leaders of having oversold their plan to get it passed by voters in 2020 and calling on the Republican-dominated state Legislature to throw a wrench in the gears… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Austin's light rail might not connect to airport (AXIOS Austin)

Transit officials are now considering scratching a plan to link a new light-rail line to the airport as part of an effort to rein in the ballooning costs of the city's transit expansion effort.

Why it matters: It's the latest sign that the voter-approved plan to more effectively connect Austin together may not be fully realized.

What's happening: Of five Project Connect light-rail options presented in transit briefing material earlier this month to city staff and obtained by Axios, only one appears to make it to the airport — with another two terminating near the intersection of Riverside and Texas 71… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[TEXAS]

Crime, infrastructure are top issues for voters ahead of Houston mayoral race, poll finds (Houston Chronicle)

Crime and infrastructure are top of mind for Houston voters in this year’s race to decide who will succeed Mayor Sylvester Turner, according to a new poll. In a survey conducted last month by Republican-aligned Ragnar Research Partners, 29 percent of voters listed crime as the “single biggest issue” they want Houston mayoral candidates to address. Fifteen percent cited infrastructure, roads and highways, while another 10 percent named homelessness and housing as their top issue. The poll also found that more than half of likely Houston voters have yet to settle on a preferred candidate in the November mayoral election. In the first public measure of the race, state Sen. John Whitmire led the field with 22 percent of the vote, trailed by former Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins at 8 percent and former City Councilmember Amanda Edwards at 7 percent.

Councilmember Robert Gallegos received 4 percent support, while attorney Lee Kaplan and Missouri City police officer Robin Williams combined for 3 percent. Bond investor and former Metro chairman Gilbert Garcia, who announced his candidacy on Friday, had yet to join the race when the poll was conducted. Renée Cross, senior executive director at the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs, said the poll shows even Whitmire, who has served in the Senate since 1983, has a long way to go to make enough voters aware of his candidacy. "While Sen. Whitmire has certainly been in office for a very long time, you have to remember that a lot of folks don't even know who their state senator is, much less a state senator in another district," Cross said. "So, while he certainly has an advantage in name ID, I don't know that the average person that doesn't follow politics closely would necessarily know who he is." The survey also sought to measure the impact of endorsements from Houston’s public safety unions on the outcome of the mayoral race. Fifty-one percent of voters said they would be more “somewhat” or “definitely” more likely to support a mayoral candidate endorsed by the Houston firefighters union, while 18 percent said the union's endorsement would make them less likely to support a candidate… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Texas education agency ready to find new leaders for Houston school district, documents show (Texas Tribune)

Documents found on the Texas Education Agency’s website show that the state is ready to appoint new leaders to take charge of the Houston Independent School District.

A job posting seeking candidates to apply for a new board of managers to oversee the state’s largest school district and a slideshow explaining the responsibilities of the body could be found in the TEA’s site before they were taken down Tuesday night. The Texas Tribune kept copies of both documents… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

[NATION]

San Francisco board open to reparations (Associated Press)

Payments of $5 million to every eligible Black adult, the elimination of personal debt and tax burdens, guaranteed annual incomes of at least $97,000 for 250 years and homes in San Francisco for just $1 a family.

These were some of the more than 100 recommendations made by a city-appointed reparations committee tasked with the thorny question of how to atone for centuries of slavery and systemic racism. And the San Francisco Board of Supervisors hearing the report for the first time Tuesday voiced enthusiastic support for the ideas listed, with some saying money should not stop the city from doing the right thing.

Several supervisors said they were surprised to hear pushback from politically liberal San Franciscans apparently unaware that the legacy of slavery and racist policies continues to keep Black Americans on the bottom rungs of health, education and economic prosperity, and overrepresented in prisons and homeless populations… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

Why New York’s cannabis equity program is stranding women entrepreneurs (Politico)

Women weed entrepreneurs who applied for New York’s first retail licenses are being left behind in the state’s effort to establish an equitable cannabis market.

Since launching the program in August, New York regulators have awarded dozens of licenses to entrepreneurs who had an immediate family member convicted on marijuana charges or have a record themselves. While those priorities were written into the program to make up for decades of disproportionate criminal enforcement, particularly in communities of color, the rules are having the unintended consequence of leaving women entrepreneurs out.

Across two rounds of licensing, 7 percent in the first round were women, while women made up just 14 percent of winners in the second.

“If we’re going to say that New York State is at the head of social equity and inclusion, it must consist of [women] or that is not full inclusion,” said Britni Tantalo, an entrepreneur who applied for one of the state’s first retail licenses through the Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary program.

New York isn’t the first state to leverage marijuana legalization as a way to bring people harmed by the war on drugs in on the financial benefits of a lucrative industry. But it has arguably taken the most aggressive approach to boost equity in the business and avoid the pitfalls of similar programs: It’s promising startup funding to entrepreneurs and even identifying and renovating real estate to help retailers.

Yet the small share of women awarded licenses so far shows how sophisticated attempts to manipulate the market to benefit a certain group of applicants can still leave others feeling snubbed… (LINK TO FULL STORY)

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