If you’re not familiar with the Dallas Development Fund, well, neither were we until we discovered it would be spending this afternoon in the basement of City Hall discussing developer Jack Matthews’ boutique hotel project adjacent to South Side on Lamar, a proposed mixed-use development near the Dallas Veterans Affairs…
Friend of Unfair Park PeterK, who once directed our rapt attention to this Miss Dallas, was kind enough to send along this for-sale photo on the eBay: burlesque dancer (maybe) Lettie Mae Etier, photographed by long-ago local Paul Mahoney, who, according to the Handbook of Texas Online, “had discovered several…
If you need me this evening I’ll be at the Texas Theatre for the ribbon-cutting ceremony that officially marks the re-opening of the Oak Cliff landmark. Scissors come out at 5, and it should be an intriguing shindig: Not only will Mayor Tom Leppert and council member Delia Jasso be…
Operation Crackdown is rumbling along through Dallas today, as the Texas National Guard continues knocking down abandoned buildings all over the city — dilapidated havens for drug use and prostitution, few, if any, with Christmas decorations to mark the season. Dwaine Caraway told us on Monday afternoon that they’d already…
Merry afternoon, Friends. I’m here at City Hall for today’s Animal Shelter Commission meeting. They’ll be discussing the recently released, mildly damning Humane Society report on the troubled Dallas Animal Services, which, under the new leadership of interim manager Lieutenant Scott Walton, has been trying to do an about-face in…
We are 59 days from kickoff of Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, and The Great Prostitution Invasion of ’11 only feels like a long way off. But, no — time to party plan. And yesterday, this invite arrived to a three-night-stravaganza at Fair Park starting February 3 called, simply, XLV…
It’s been 15 years since Ross Williams heard the athlete he claims is his son was coming back to Texas. Since then, the 68-year-old retiree in Lancaster has tracked Ricky Williams from Miami to California and back, trying to convince the 1998 Heisman Trophy winner that he is his father…
This doesn’t look good. The New York Yankees make free-agent pitcher Cliff Lee an offer of six years between $140-$150 million. (UPDATE: How about a seventh year?!) Lee’s agent, Darek Brauneker, puts the offer in his briefcase, leaves baseball’s winter meetings early and flies to Arkansas to present the deal to…
On Monday we sneak-peeked the ordinance creating those so-called Solicitation-Free Zones in downtown, Deep Ellum, Uptown and Victory; yesterday, with little to say other than “yay,” the council approved the revision to the City Code, adding to the existing law a $500 fine for panhandlers and extending its enforcement hours…
Speaking of stealing Christmas …Two days after First Baptist Church of Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress debuted his Grinch Alert website — because he will “not bow to the strident voices of a minority who object to the holiday” — he went on CNN’s American Morning to discuss the naughty-or-nice list…
Some folks strive to donate to charities during the holiday season: North Texas Food Bank, Salvation Army Angel Tree, Adopt-A-Child. Maybe they even help out a kitty or pup. Which brings us to Second Chance Treasures, the retail offshoot of the no-kill, non-profit East Lake Pet Orphanage (ELPO) housed inside…
He led the Dallas Mavericks to their 30-year apex. He Instilled defense and discipline into a franchise that had forever languished with an offensive philosophy. He orchestrated the best regular-season in team history. He was the NBA’s Coach of the Year. And he took them within 2 1/4 games of an NBA championship. On the…
Christmas spirit: ‘Tis the season to celebrate the brotherhood and sisterhood of all mankind and give a thought to those in need. And then throw those God-damned beggars into the slammer. Ho, ho, ho. It’s a Very Special City Hall Noël, as this week the city council was scheduled to…
Thousands of television sets had been sold in Dallas by 1951, but most of the time the machines weren’t good for much. The city’s biggest station aired a test pattern 15 hours a day. In homes across the county, hulking Philcos and Zeniths sat stone-faced in their mahogany veneer cases…
Go West. Then, in an attempt to consistently go big, go East. Got it? Oh, and since another undefeated Texas Christian University college football season is being denied a chance at a national championship, feel free to go ape-shit. “It would have been fun to see what would have happened,…
When we spoke to Mike Modano about his will-he-won’t-he-retirement-that-wasn’t in April, he had this to say about a certain teammate: “Lehtinen was a real treat to play with, obviously, and what he brought. He played hard and sacrificed his body, and I don’t know how much more he has left.”Even…
As the Dallas City Council wraps up its last meeting of the year, they’ll consider adjusting the city’s Permanent Supportive Housing Program — to keep the council notified when new proposals come in and to “encourage developers and applicants to brief key neighborhood and community groups.” In other words, to…
Texas Comptroller Susan Combs was at the University of Texas at Dallas today, where she unveiled the state’s Financial Allocation Study for Texas website, which measures how well the state’s school district’s spend their dough. Dallas ISD only got two stars out of a possible five on the overall chart,…
On a professional note, too bad Texas Rangers’ iconic voice Eric Nadel didn’t win the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting this morning at baseball’s winter meetings. He was edged out by Dave Van Horne, who’s been calling games (for Expos and now the Marlins) for 42 years. On…
On the other side you’ll find a lawsuit I came across this morning while looking for something completely unrelated: United States of America v. PrimeLending. The residential mortgage lender, HQ’d in Victory Park, is a subsidiary of PlainsCapital, which, maybe you remember, took $87.6 mil in TARP funds two years…
Like the BCS, style points count. So do geeky, black-and-white stats such as touchdowns and quarterback ratings. Wins and losses? Definitely. Leadership? Uh-huh. When it comes to my weekly NFL Quarterback Rankings — if I had one of those little encircled R’s to signify a trademarked idea, it’d go here — the…
A few minutes after 10 a.m. today, 50 or so people stood in line outside the H&M Preview store in NorthPark Center behind a polyester rope, anxiously awaiting the first-ever opportunity to buy off-the-rack H&M clothing on Texas soil. Stroller-pushers, grandparents and fashionistas of all genders clapped as we made…
