UT patrols increase in west campus
Governor Greg Abbott has ordered the Department of Public Safety to beef up patrols around west campus after four armed robberies and a violent home invasion this week. UT Police Chief David Carter says he’s hopeful safety upgrades will be in place soon, including more lights and cameras.
“Even though all of those things were delayed based on trade issues and COVID, we’ll hopefully have all of that up and running by the spring semester,” says Carter.
Carter tells the governor in a letter he’s very worried about the cuts that Austin has made to it’s police department. The governor says he’s having to step in here to ensure that innocent people aren’t being preyed upon.
Bar owners frustrated about reopening plans
Some Austin area bar owners say they’re pretty frustrated with Governor Abbott, even though he’s allowing bars to reopen next week. Texas Bar Nightclub Alliance Chairman and Austin bar owner Bob Woody questions why the governor is passing the final decision off on county leaders.
“Abbott saying that it’s okay and allow this to take place with caveats is problematic. It doesn’t help to say we’re gonna let somebody in the county decide, but here’s the rules I’m gonna let you operate by,” says Woody.
Woody says bars that do get the green light by their county judge, even with the restrictions, get a chance to eke by instead of just waiting.
Only two Central Texas counties have so far signaled their intent to get bars back open next week. Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell and Bastrop County Judge Paul Pape both say they will give the go ahead Wednesday. Travis, Hays and Caldwell counties have not made any decision yet, although Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe may make an announcement today or Monday.
COVID-19 update
Throughout the week, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Travis County remained fairly flat, swinging back and forth between the mid eighties and the mid seventies. Today is certainly no different. 80 people are hospitalized. That’s just one more than this time yesterday. ICU bed space remains ample. Ventilator usage is still low. 690 cases are active, that’s up by 20. 28,948 people have recovered from the 30,075 confirmed cases since March.
In Williams County, similar to its neighbor to the south, there hasn’t been a lot of movement either way in the coronavirus numbers this week. A dozen people are hospitalized this morning. That’s down from 13 a day ago. Active cases back below 200 as of this morning, now at 192. 8,558 recoveries recorded out of the overall 8,894 cases found since March.
John Cornyn vs. M.J. Hegar
As the latest poll shows, John Cornyn and M.J. Hegar statistically tied, tonight’s debate may decide who’s the next senator. Cornyn and Hegar will face off in Austin at the Bullock Texas State History Museum at 7 p.m. Cornyn refers to the race as the referendum of our lifetime.
“I’m running against one of the most radical liberals in the state who’s campaigning on a promise to ban fracking, expand obamacare and raise taxes,” says Cornyn.
In 2018 Air Force vet M.J. Hegar fell three points short of taking US representative John Carter’s house seat. Now she’s giving Cornyn a run.
“People are dying because of the policies being decided in DC. I think that it’s time that we start sending fighters to go and fight for people,” says Hegar.
Office space in austin declining
Austin’s office space market continued to see more business dropping out, increasing the vacancy rate to more than 14%. Tim Donahue, with a commercial real estate firm CBRE, says it was a struggle to garner interest for the downtown area because of multiple tenants per building and coronavirus.
“Has definitely had several users press upon building owners and building management how they plan to securitize their workforce,” Donahue says.
The 3rd and the 2nd corners have been really hard on downtown. But he does see a glimmer of hope as the retail industry is slowly building back steam and more inquiries from businesses are coming from both the East and the West Coast
The Hub in Cedar Park
Cedar Park’s upcoming Northline mixed use development officially has its first tenant lined up. The city says an entertainment venue called The Hub will be part of the first development phase of that 115 acre development. Northline will have a combined one million square feet of space office retail, 2,000 apartments and 300 townhomes.
Bankruptcy auction for previous Motorola land
A Canadian based company appears to be the likely new owner of the 109 acres of land in East Austin once housed by Motorola. The bankruptcy judge this week has approved a $45 million bid from Romspen Mortgage LP. The current owner of the site, Zen Garden, went into bankruptcy earlier this year.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-10-9-20
