On the other side is City Auditor Craig Kinton’s just-released look-see at the amount of overtime paid to Dallas-Fire Rescue personnel. And, for the most part, it’s good news: In FY2008, he says, the city forked over $10.7 million in overtime, but just two years later that figure dropped by…
Bob Curry, chair of the city’s Urban Forest Advisory Committee, came to the council’s Quality of Life Committee this morning with a warning: Come spring, we’ll learn how many Dallas’s trees will be lost to devastating summer weather. He said: Look no further than Houston. Down there, he said, there…
Here, as promised Friday, is the PowerPoint presented to the city council moments ago concerning efforts to make it easier for street vendors to set up shop in downtown. No surprise: For the most part the council members on the Quality of Life Committee were all for Interim Assistant City…
Something about the Omni ribbon-cutting photo below, featuring Larry Hagman and Linda Gray and Not-Mayor Tom, gnawed at Friend of Unfair Park Ed D. all weekend. Then, last night, it hit him: In October 2010, at the topping-out ceremony for The People’s Hotel, Leppert said: “The bottom line is, this…
Waaaaay back in April 2010 we got our first loving look at the city’s plans to widen Riverfront Boulevard, which, like I need to tell you, is now considered the “Gateway to the Trinity River” intended to connect downtown, the Trinity, the Design District and the Cedars. But there was…
On November 2, City Manager Mary Suhm told Unfair Park that the city would initiate Stage 1 water restrictions sooner than later; but exactly when, she would not say, only that the council would be briefed on the subject November 16. But in a memo sent to council moments ago,…
This afternoon, U.S. District Judge David Godbey helped City Hall and Occupy Dallas come to a verbal agreement that protestors can not only keep camping outside City Hall, but can also use City Hall restrooms and keep their current signage — two issues disputed in the lawsuit seeking a temporary…
I’ve been regretting all day we didn’t have a warm body to spare to send to the ribbon-cutting of The People’s Hotel, aka the downtown Omni. Then this arrived, courtesy the good folks at Weber Shandwick: Larry Hagman and Linda Gray — in town shooting Dallas, of course — joining…
Yesterday we confirmed the existence of council member Delia Jasso’s amended council-districts map she hopes will replace the version the city submitted to the Department of Justice at the end of October. Actually, we were told, it wasn’t really a map, more like a redo of District 1, with Jasso…
Tomorrow morning, I expect, we’ll post the PowerPoint that goes along with a simply titled but nonetheless intriguing item that appears on the council’s Quality of Life Committee agenda for Monday morning: “Downtown Vending.” Rumor’s been circulating for a long while now that efforts are underway to rewrite the section…
Stephen Benavides, an organizer with the United Steelworkers, was one of eight arrested Saturday at the Occupy Dallas protest at the downtown Bank of America tower during Bank Transfer Day, aimed at encouraging the use of not-for-profit credit unions over for-profit banks. But while the other protesters were jailed on…
Back in February, City Hall proudly announced that Walmart was going to build, build, build all ’round town — “more than a dozen new projects in the city of Dallas,” said the release, with a Supercenter at R.L. Thornton and Ledbetter Drive at the very tippy-top of that list. And…
After several hours of deliberation, a jury returned a verdict of not guilty in the felony animal cruelty trial of Tyrone McGill, the former animal shelter manager indicted in August 2010 following a May ’10 incident at the Dallas animal shelter involving a cat trapped behind a wall that wasn’t…
Four long years ago we wrote about two local ministries — Big Hart Ministries and the Rip Parker Memorial Homeless Ministry– that filed suit against the city of Dallas in federal court over an ordinance that they say kept them from serving food to the homeless and violated their religious…
So far, there’s been little indication that the council has any interest in reopening the debate over the new council-districts map approved (barely) on October 5 and dispatched to the Department of Justice three weeks later. As you may recall, six council members did ask Mayor Mike Rawlings to add…
A couple of weeks back we noted that the city’s Animal Shelter Commission has created the Dallas Companion Animal Project, a task force “charged with developing a blueprint for ending the killing of adoptable animals.” And while Nathan Winograd may not be the biggest fan, the project proceeds apace: This…
Below you’ll find the original agreement the city of Dallas and Occupy Dallas entered into last month after that trip to the courthouse that was all fist-bumps and high-fives. Problem is, the agreement is affixed as an exhibit to even more legal docs Occupy Dallas’s attorneys took to the courthouse…
OK, so just below this item is last night’s Saturday Night Live sketch starring the best Rick Perry impersonator yet, Rick Perry. But a lot’s happened since then as the Perry camp attempts to salvage the campaign. Like that tweet from the gov you see above. And: the hastily popped-up…
I was sitting down to watch some teevee when the bossman emailed: “Rick Perry just shit the bed.” Ah. Yes. Tonight’s debate, otherwise known as: The Night Rick Perry’s Campaign Ended when he couldn’t remember … couldn’t remember … something … oops. Shame too, though at least Bill Hader should…
Late this afternoon, former animal shelter manager Tyrone McGill took the stand to testify in his defense at his felony animal cruelty trial, which began yesterday. While the prosecution attempted to paint a picture of McGill as an indifferent, unreachable bureaucrat who willfully allowed a cat to die behind a…
At the end of business yesterday City Hall sent that memo from City Manager Mary Suhm and that letter from First Assistant City Attorney Chris Bowers. Both said more or less the same thing: Occupy Dallas has till 5 p.m. Saturday to clean up its mess behind Dallas City Hall,…
Never did hear from City Manager Mary Suhm about what she intended to tell Mayor Mike Rawlings concerning Occupy Dallas’s continued camp-out behind Dallas City Hall. No matter: Moments ago Suhm sent to the mayor and city council a memo outlining what she says are “numerous, ongoing, and material breaches”…
