Monday Morning Report
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IMPORTANT MEETING CHANGE: The Executive Committee Meeting of the Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council has been rescheduled from March 19th to Wednesday, April 16th. We apologize for any inconveniences.
The Austin-San Antonio Corridor Council’s Transportation Task Force Committee will meet 1:30 pm on Monday, March 31, 2008 at the San Marcos Activity Center. Please RSVP to council@thecorridor.org or call 512-558-7360 for more information.
Welcome to our newest member, Alamo Community College District, San Antonio.
Infrastructure
The Austin-based Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization takes up an item during a public hearing this evening (3/17) that would eventually provide $20 million in funding for the Austin-San Antonio Commuter Rail project, matching a similar $20 million funding grant already approved by the San Antonio-Bexar County Metropolitan Planning Organization last year. Final vote on the item will come in April, 2008.
This month's issue of Surface Transportation Innovations reports on the controversy over toll concessions for the SH 121 toll road in North Texas and compares it to SH 130 Segments 5 & 6 in Central Texas. Editor Robert Poole considers what we've learned from these projects and how those lessons impact the proposed SH 161 toll road project in Dallas as well as other future toll projects. Poole sees problems, makes suggestions for reforms, here.
About 9% of rail lines in the US Gulf Coast region are at or below four feet in elevation and vulnerable to flooding due to a future sea level rise and natural sinking of the area's land mass, according to a recent US Department of Transportation study. The study also found that 27% of major roads and 72% of area ports are at or below four feet in elevation and face the same vulnerabilities. The study examined a 48-county area in four states between Galveston, Texas, and Mobile, Ala. Details here.
The normally conservative US Energy Information Administration, following all-time record high petroleum prices of $111 a barrel last week, is predicting some gas prices in some places could rise to $4 a gallon by spring. "There is a significant possibility that prices during some shorter time period, or in some region or sub-region, will cross the $4 per gallon threshold," says their report, quoted on Pat Driscoll's blog here.
Economic Development
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that trade using surface transportation between the U.S. and its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) partners Canada and Mexico was 4.9% higher in 2007 than in 2006, reaching an annual record of $797 billion.
The Texas A&M University System selected Maria Hernandez Ferrier, formerly the executive director for external funding at Southwest Independent School District, to lead the Texas A&M Kingsville System Center-San Antonio. Her position becomes effective April 1.
Texas ranks high when it comes to home values in college towns, according to College Real Estate LLC. San Antonio, which saw home prices climb 8.25 % last year, ranked sixth. Austin came in seventh with a 7.95% increase in home prices in 2007. The three top spots are: Thibodeaux. La., home of Nicholls State; Ogden, Utah, where Weber State University is located; and Provo, Utah, home of Utah Valley State College.
Southwest Airlines will begin nonstop service from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport to Philadelphia starting March 17, 2008. Nearly 8.9 million passengers came through ABIA in 2007.
Cedar Park’s population increased 10.5% in 2007, compared with 6% in 2006. The city’s population now stands at about 50,000 people. According to the city planning department’s projections, Cedar Park’s population will grow to about 68,000 by 2015.
Austin ranked as the ninth fastest growing region for venture capital investment, according to the National Venture Capital Association. From 1997 to 2007, investment dollars grew by 178% while the number of deals grew by 41% in Austin. New Mexico saw the largest jump in activity with a 375% increase in investment dollars and a 600% boost in deals.
“The Aim of an Argument...should not be victory, but progress.”
- Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)