Planetizen Newswire
Keep up with essential planning news and commentary, delivered to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
Gov. Greg Abbott
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the nonprofit, independent power grid operator for 90 percent of the nation's second-largest state, has become the convenient fall guy for the epic power failure caused by an extreme weather event.
Austin American-Statesman
After releasing "public scoping" details for a massive widening project in Downtown Austin, a writing slams the Texas Department of Transportation for its car-centric approach to transportation planning.
Austin Towers
The battle to control the coronavirus in the U.S is being led by 50 governors and the D.C. mayor, but ultimately it is at the local level where decisions are often the most consequential. Among large counties, the crisis is most severe in El Paso.
The Texas Tribune
During March and April, most states shut down all but essential services in order to "flatten the curve," and it largely worked. What happened afterward didn't. U.S. PIRG has organized a campaign to start the process over and do it right.
CNN
A second county in the Rio Grande Valley has issued an unenforceable stay-at-home order to reduce transmission of the coronavirus. Its one overwhelmed hospital will implement a triage system to determine which patients to treat and whom to reject.
CBS News
The first shelter-at-home order issued in the pandemic's resurgence in the U.S. took effect Wednesday morning in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, an overwhelmingly Latino region that has been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus.
The Monitor
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) and the Atlanta City Council over the city's mask mandate, which is stricter than mask provisions defined in the governor's July 15 executive order.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The nation's most significant rollback to date of a state reopening plan occurred Monday when California Gov. Gavin Newsom closed seven categories of indoor businesses statewide and an additional six categories of indoor operations in 31 counties.
San Francisco Chronicle
Younger people are making up more of the new cases of COVID-19 as the coronavirus explodes in the Sunbelt states, particularly Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, bringing with it new attention on bars as settings for high viral transmission.
The New York Times
Coronavirus cases are surging throughout the South and West. With growing hospitalizations threatening the capacity of the health care systems in major cities in Texas, Gov. Gregg Abbott pressed 'pause' on the state's reopening plan.
The Washington Post
Coronavirus cases are surging in the Lone Star State's urban areas, so mayors of nine of its largest cities asked Greg Abbott for the power to mandate the wearing of masks or facial coverings, prohibited by executive order, to slow viral spread.
The Texas Tribune
Public health experts were pleased that Trump extended his coronavirus guidelines, but they remain advisory, left to state and local governments to implement. Nine states have yet to issue stay-at-home orders, leaving the nation vulnerable to COVID.
The Hill
Four miles of the 10-mile North Tarrant Express project opened to motorists on April 5. The $1.6 billion project, built by a public-private partnership working with TxDOT, includes rebuilding general purpose and frontage road lanes.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
In a landmark, unanimous vote, the Texas Transportation Commission eliminated all 15 express lane projects from their 10-year capital plan despite pleas from Austin area officials to retain the $8 billion, I-35 project that includes four toll lanes.
Austin American-Statesman
Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic of The New York Times, looks beyond sprawl and development issues that challenge Houston in its rebuilding efforts. An anti-urban, anti-regulation bias from the statehouse isn't helping matters.
The New York Times
Interstate 35 through Central Austin would be transformed into a three-level roadway wIth toll lanes in the middle, according to an 8.1 billion vision proposed by TxDOT.
Austin American-Statesman
A new Texas state law that regulates transportation network companies also overrides more restrictive local regulations, like Austin's requirement for fingerprinting drivers. Austin voters supported the tighter regulations at the ballot box last May.
The Texas Tribune
